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FALLS OF STE. ANNE. 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE 
AND CHARACTER 



WITH HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES OF 

THE SCENERY AND LIFE IN QUEBEC, MONTREAL, 

OTTAWA, AND SURROUNDING COUNTRY 



EDITED BY 

GEORGE MUNRO GRANT, D. D. 

queen's university, KINGSTON, ONT. 



ILLUSTRATED BY WOOD-ENGRAVINGS FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS 
BY F. B. SCHELL, L. R. O'BRIEN, W. T. SMEDLEY, T. MORAN, 

G. GIBSON, AND OTHERS 



% 



CHICAGO 

ALEXANDER BELFORD & CO. 

1899 



Copyright, 1899 
By ALEXANDER BELFORD & CO. 







'* ■ -Pa 



,-.;?LT OCt--', 






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CONTENTS 



PAGE 

FRENCH-CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER . - - g 

By J. G. A. CREIGHTON. M.A. 

QUEBEC— HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 51 

By PRINCIPAL GRANT, D. D., and MISS A. M. MACHAR 

SOUTHEASTERN QUEBEC - 115 

By J. HOWARD HUNTER, M.A. 

MONTREAL - ,- - - 139 

By REV. A. J. BRAY and JOHN LESPERANCE, M. R. S. C. 

THE LOWER OTTAWA 179 

By R. VASHON ROGERS, B. A., and C. P. MULVANEY, M. A. 

OTTAWA _ _ 200 

By F. A. DIXON 

THE UPPER OTTAWA .._..... . - ... 233 

By C. P. MULVANEY, M.A. 



AND CHARACTER 




umSz. 



^/?AP,r7i£L. 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER. 



" TF you have never visited the Cote de Beaupre, you know neither Canada nor the 



I 



Canadians," says the Abbe Ferland. 
The beautiful strip of country that borders the St. Lawrence for a score or so of 
miles below the Falls of Montmorency does, indeed, afford the best possible illustration 
of the scenery, the life, and the manners of the Province of Quebec, the people of 
which, not content with naming the Dominion, claim Canada and Canadian as designa- 
tions peculiarly their own. All that is lovely in landscape is to be found there. The 
broad sweep of " the great river of Canada," between the ramparts of Cape Diamond 
and the forest-crowned crest of Cap Tourmente, is fringed with rich meadows rising in 
terraces of verdure, slope after slope, to the foot of the sombre hills that wall in the 
vast amphitheatre. In the foreground the north channel, hemmed in by the bold cliffs 
of the Island of Orleans, sparkles in the sun. Far away across the Traverse, as you 
look between the tonsured head of Petit Cap and the point of Orleans, a cluster of 
low islands breaks the broad expanse of the main stream, the brilliant blue of which 



lO 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE 



p 




A* 



^ 



GATHERING MARSH HAY. 



melts on the distant horizon into the hardly purer azure of the sky. 
with swelling- canvas, make their slow way, or lying , 

high on the flats await their cargo. Stately ships 
glide down with the favouring tide, or an- 
nounce the near end of the voyage by sig- 
nals to the shore and guns that roll loud 
thunder through the hills. The marshes, 



Ouaint batteajix, 




LOADING A BATTKAU AT LOW TIDE. 



AiYD CHARACTER 



II 










CAP TOURIIICNTE AND PETIT CAP. 



covered with rich grass, are studded with haymakers gathering the abundant yield, 
or are dotted with cattle. Inland, stiff poplars and bosky elms trace out the long 
brown ribands of the roads. Here and there the white cottages group closer together, 
and the spire of the overshadowing church topping the trees, marks the centre of 
a parish. Red roofs and glistening domes flash out in brilliant points of colour 
against the fleecy clouds that fleck the summer sky. Rich pastures, waving grain, 
orchards and maple groves, lead the eye back among their softly-blending tints to the 
dark masses of purple and green with which the forests clothe the mountains. Huge 
rifts, in which sunlight and shadow work rare effects, reveal where imprisoned 
streams burst their way through the Laurentian rocks in successions of magnificent 
cascades. A glimpse of white far up the mountain side shows one of these, while its 
placid course through the lowland is marked in silver sheen. As the sun gets low, one 
perchance catches the flash reflected from some of the lovely lakes that lie among 
the hills. 

The Cote de Beaupre is the oldest as well as the fairest part of the Province. It 
was settled soon after Champlain landed, the rich marsh hay being utilized at once for 
the wants of Quebec. In 1633 a fort was built at Petit Cap, the summit of the pro- 
monotory that juts out into the river under the overshadowing height of Cap Tourmente. 
The fort was destroyed by Sir David Kirk — Admiral, the chroniclers call him — in these 
days he would probably be hanged as a buccaneer — who harried the cattle and then 
sailed on to summon Quebec to surrender for the first time. In 1670 Laval established 
here a school for training boys as well in farming and mechanics, as in doctrine and 
discipline. Among other industries, wood-carving for church decoration was taught, 



12 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE 



so that the Cote de Beaupre can lay claim to the first Art School and the first 
model-farm in America. The Quebec Seminary still keeps up this state of things — 
at least as far as agriculture is concerned. The place is known as " The Priests' Farm," 
and supplies the Seminary, being thoroughly worked and having much attention given 
to it. It is also a summer resort for the professors and pupils of the Seminary. 

After the restoration of Canada to France by the Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye, 
in 1632, this part of the little colony grew apace, so that by the time the seigniory 
passed into Laval's hands, from whom it came to its present owners — the Seminary — 
its population, notwithstanding its exposure to 
attack by the Iroquois, was greater than that 
of Quebec itself. From its situation it has 
been less vulnerable than many other districts 
to outside influences. The face of the country 
and the character of the people have yielded 
less to modern ideas, which, working quietly 
and imperceptibly, have left intact many of 
the antiquities, traditions and customs that 
have disappeared elsewhere within the last 
generation. Here you may find families liv- 
ing- on the lands their forefathers took in 
feudal tenure from the first seigneurs of La 
Nouvelle France. What Ferland says is still 
to a great extent true : "In the habitmit of 
the Cote de Beaupre you have the Norman 
peasant of the reign of Louis XIV., with his 
legends, his songs, his superstitions and his customs." He is not so benighted as 
many people think he is, but here and there you will come across a genuine survival 
of the Old Regime, and may, perhaps, meet some gray-capoted, fur-capped, brown-visaged, 
shrivelled-up old man, whose language and ideas make you think a veritable Breton 
or Norman of the century before last has been weather-beaten and smoke-dried into 
perpetual preservation. 

All the world over your rustic is conservative. The old gods lived long among 
the Italian villagers, thoucrh Rome was the centre of the new faith. Amono- the 
habitans of the Province of Quebec there yet exist a mode of life and cast of thought 
strangely in contrast with their surroundings. In the cities a rapid process of assimi- 
lation is going on. Quaint and foreign though Montreal, and especially Quebec, seem 
to the stranger at first sight, their interest is mainly historical and political. To under- 
stand the national life of Lower Canada, you must go among the habitans. 

The word is peculiarly French-Canadian. The paysan, or peasant, never existed in 




-^^..PH^^'- 



AN OLD HABITANT, 



AND CHARACTER 13 

Canada, for the feudalism established by Louis XIV. did not imply any personal depend- 
ence upon the seigneur, nor, in fact, any real social inferiority. Each censitairc was, in 
all but name, virtually as independent a proprietor as is his descendant to-day. He 
was and he is emphatically the dweller in the land. He " went up and saw the land 
that it was good," possessed it, and dwells therein. The term is often used as equiva- 
lent to ciiltivateicr, or farmer, and as distinguishing the rural from the urban population ; 
but, rightly understood and used as he uses it, nothing more forcibly expresses 
both the origin and nature of the attachment of the French - Canadian to his 
country and the tenacity with which he clings to his nationality, his religion and his 
language. 

The persistency of French nationality in Canada is remarkable. The formal guar- 
antees of the Treaty of Paris and the Quebec Act, that language, religion and laws 
should be preserved, undoubtedly saved it from extinction by conquest. But to the 
difference in character between the French and English, which is so radical and has been 
so sedulously fostered by every possible means, not the least effective being an able and 
vigorous literature which preserves and cultivates the French language ; to the political 
freedom which allowed the realization of the early perception that as individuals they 
would be without influence, as a body all-powerful ; to the inherent merits of their civil 
law, the direct descendant of a jurisprudence which was a refined science centuries be- 
fore Christ ; and to the ideal of becoming the representatives of Roman Catholicism 
in America, must be mainly ascribed the vitality that the French-Canadians have shown 
as a distinct people. Their numerical and physical condition will be dealt with later on, 
but it may be said here that a great deal is also due to their origin. The hardy sailors 
of Normandy and Bretagne ; the sturdy farmers of Anjou, Poitou, Le Perche, Aunis, 
$aintonge and L'lle-de-France ; the soldiers of the Carignan regiment who had fought on 
every battle-field in Europe, brought with them to Canada the spirit of adventure, the 
endurance, the bravery — in short, all the qualities that go to make successful colonists, 
and that they inherited from the same source as does the Englishman. In the United 
States, the second or third generation finds other immigrants completely fused into the 
common citizenship, but the little French-Canadian colonies in the manufacturing towns 
of New England and in the wheat regions of the West, keep their language, and, to a 
great extent, their customs. Canada was a true colony, and has remained the most 
successful French attempt at colonization. From various causes, Louisiana has failed to 
keep her nationality intact. In Lower Canada, the spirit of Champlain and La Salle, 
of the couretii-s dc bois, of the Iroquois-haunted settlers on the narrow fringe of strag- 
gling farms along the St. Lawrence — the spirit that kept up the fight for the Fleurs de 
Lis long after " the few acres of snow " had been abandoned by their King — has always 
remained the same, and still animates the colons in the backwoods. The French-Cana- 
dians have always fought for a faith and an idea, hence they have remained French. 



H 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE 




As one of their most celebrated French orators pointed out at the great national fete 
of St. Jean Baptiste at Quebec in 1880, that was the secret of it all; while the 

Thirteen Colonies, which fought for material 
interests, are American, not English. 

Whatever the cause, there is no doubt as 
to the fact of French nationality. The north 
shore of the St. Lawrence is more P'rench 
than is the south, where the proximity of the 
United States and the influence of the English- 

o 

settled eastern townships are sensible. In the 
western part of the Province, the numerical 
proportion of French is smaller and their char- 
acteristics are less marked ; but from Montreal 
downwards — the towns of course excepted — you 
are to all intents in a land where English is 
not spoken. Below Quebec, far down to the 
Labrador coast, is the most purely French por- 
tion of all. You may find greater simplicity 
of life, and more of the old customs, in such a 
primaeval parish as Isle aux Coudres, farther 
down the river ; the people on the coast where 

the St. Lawrence becomes the gulf, are sailors and fishermen rather than farmers ; those 

along the Ottawa are lumberers and raftsmen ; but the Cote 

de Beaupre is fairly typical of the whole of French-Canada. 
The names of its five parishes, L'Ange 

Gardien, Chateau Richer, Sainte Anne de 

Beaupre, St. Joachim, and St. 

Fereol, tell you at once you 

are in a land with a religion 

and a history. Nothing, per- 
haps, strikes a stranger more 

than the significant nomencla- 
ture of the Province. Every 

village speaks the faith of the 

people, lie Jesus, Sainte Foye, 

L'Assomption, L'Epiphanie, St. 

Joseph, Ste. Croix, Ste. Anne, 

St. Barthelemi, St. Eustache, 

Notre Dame des Anges, are ' L'ange gakdien. 



EDimCocnnSc 



HABITANT AND SNOW-SHOES. 




AXn CHARACTER 15 

not mere designations. The pious commemorations and joyful celebrations of the 
patron saint or particular festival show it. Hills, rivers and lakes tell of military 
achievements, of missionary voyages, of dangers encountered, of rest after peril past, 
of the hopes that animated the voyagcui-s pushing through the maze of forest and 
stream in search of the golden West, of grand prospects and lovely landscapes, of 
quaint semblances and fond reminiscence of home. Take just a few of these names : 
Calumet, Sault au RecoUet, Belange, Carillon, Chaudiere, Pointe aux Trembles, Bout 
de L'lle, Lachine, Portage du Fort, Beaupre, Beloeil, La Lievre, La Rose, Chute 
au Blondeau, Riviere Quelle, Riviere au Chien, Montreal, Quebec, Joliette, Beauport. 
Each suggests a story of its own ; most of them have their associations of history 
and tradition, and there are thousands like them. The French knew how to name a 
country. In point of beauty and significance, their names are unequalled ; and they not 
onl\- described the land as do the Indians — they literally christened it. Even where it 
comes to perpetuating the memories of men, what a sonorous ring there is about Cham- 
plain, Richelieu, Sorel, Chambly, Varennes, Contrecceur, Longueuil and Beauharnois, 
unapproachable by English analogues. Point Levis is, in truth, not a whit more sesthe- 
tic than Smith's Falls, nor more useful, but there is no denying its superiority of sound. 
When you know the grotesque and haughty legend that represents the Virgin Mary in 
heaven telling a Chevalier de Levis, " Cousin, keep on your hat," you can no longer 
compare the two names, for you quite understand why the Levis family should have a 
Point as well as an Ark of its own. 

L'Ange Gardien lies just beyond the famous Falls of Montmorency. Set in trees on 
the slope of the hills, which here grow close on the river, and standing high over the 
north channel, the village commands an exquisite view, the placid beauty of which makes 
"The Guardian Angel" a most appropriate name. The spot has not always had such 
peaceful associations. Wolfe's troops, those "Eraser's Highlanders" who afterwards 
turned their swords into ploughshares so effectually that their descendants at Murray 
Bay and Kamouraska are French even to having forgotten their fathers' language, 
ravaged this parish and Chateau Richer from one end to the other, destroyed all the 
crops, and burned almost every house. There is little trace of the devastation now, e.x- 
cept in the stories that old habitaiis have heard their elders tell. Two quaint little 
chapels stand one on each side, a few arpcns from the parish church. They were 
originally intended for mortuary chapels during the winter, when the frost prevents graves 
being dug, and for use at the celebration of the "Fete Dieu " or "Corpus Christi " in 
June, the procession going to one or the other in alternate years. On these occasions, 
they would be gay with flowers, flags, and evergreens. Beside one of them is the little 
plot used for the burial of heretics, excommunicated persons, and unbaptized infants. 
There is always such a corner in every village cemetery, never a large one, for the 
people are too good Catholics not to have an intense dread of lying in unconsecrated 



i6 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE 



ground, and too charitable to consign strangers to the fate they fear for themselves. 
The chapel farthest down the river is now a consecrated shrine of Notre Dame de 
Lourdes. Before the statue of our Lady burns a perpetual light, and she divides with 
La Bonne Ste. Anne de Beaupre the devotions of thousands of pilgrims annually. 

The course of settlement along the St. Lawrence is well defined. Close to the river, 
in a belt from two to ten miles wide, on the north shore, lie the old French farms. 
Back of these, among the foot-hills, is a second range of settlements, for the most part 
Irish and Scotch. Farther in are the colons or pioneers, who, no longer able to live 
upon the subdivision of their patrimohie or family inheritance, commence again, as their 
ancestors did, in the backwoods. Parallel roads, painfully straight for miles, mark out 




FRENCH FARMS. 



the ranges into which the seigniories and parishes are divided. These ranges or conccssio7is 
are sometimes numbered, sometimes named, almost universally after a saint. On the 
south shore, the belt of settlement is much wider. At the westward of the Province it 
extends to the United States boundary line, but narrows as it approaches Quebec, so 
that below the city the arrangement is much the same as on the north side. In fact. 
French-Canada is very truly described as two continuous villages along the St. Lawrence. 
The succession of white cottages, each on its own little parallelogram of land, has 
struck every traveller from La Hontan to the present day. 

The narrow farms, or terres, as they are called, catch the eye at once. Originally 
three arpens wide by thirty deep (the arpent as a lineal measure equals iSo French or 191 



AND CHARACTER 17 

Eno-lish feet), or about 200 yards by a little over a mile, they have been subdivided 
according to the system of intestate succession under the Coutume de Paris, which gives 
property in equal shares to all the children, until the fences seem to cover more ground 
than the crops. The division is longitudinal, so that each heir gets an equal strip of 
beech, marsh, plough land, pasture, and forest. The houses line the road that runs along 
the top of the river bank, or marks the front of the concession if it lies back any distance. 
This arrangement is but a carrying out of the principle upon which the original settle- 
ment was formed, to gain all the advantages of the river frontage. The entire organi- 
zation of French-Canada depended on it. The system was well adapted for easy com- 
munication in the early days of the colony ; the river was the highway — in summer, for 
canoes — in winter, for sleighs ; so that the want of good roads was not a serious disad- 
vantage. It was also well suited for defence against the Iroquois, who in their bloody 
raids had to follow the course of the streams. The settlers could fall back upon each 
other, gradually gaining strength until the seigneur s block-house was reached and a stand 
made while the news went on from farm to farm, and the whole colony stood to arms. 
In the district of Quebec you may often hear a habitant speak of going " au fort," 
meaning thereby " au village," — a curious survival of those fighting days. 

In winter the ice is still the best of all roads. Long lanes of bushes and small 
spruces, dwindling away in distant perspective, mark out the track, to keep which would 
otherwise be no easy matter at night or in a snowstorm, and point out the " air holes " 
caused by the " shoving " or moving en masse of the ice that usually follows any change 
in the level of the river. 

This universal parallelogramic shape is, however, very disadvantageous to the 
development of a country, being to no small extent anti-social and particularly unfavour- 
able to a general school system. The geographical, not the mental condition of the habi- 
tant has militated most against intellectual and social improvement. There were no 
points of concentration for the interchange of ideas, save the gathering at the parish 
church on Sundays and fete-days when, after High Mass, the crowd lingers to hear the 
huissiers publications of official notices at the church door ; or, once in a while, to listen 
to electioneering addresses. The villages are, as before noted, for the most part long, 
straggling lines of houses, with hardly any sign where one begins and the other ends, 
save the spire of another church, with the neighbouring cottages a little closer together. 
There are no country gentry. The seigneur rarely resides upon his estate, and when 
he does, his prestige is no longer what it was ; he is often merely a habitant himself, 
one of the people, as are the curi, the couple of shopkeepers, the village notary, and 
the doctor, v,Ko compose the notables. The judicial terms every month at the Chef 
Lieu, which in a way corresponds to the County Town, by no means compare with the 
bustle of the Assizes in an English or Ontarian County. For the habitans not close 
to one of the large cities there is no going to market, as nearly everything they raise 



i8 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE 



is consumed by themselves at home. The isolation of the cjires, their zeal for their 
pastoral work and the incessant demands upon their time, used to prevent much study 
and practice of agriculture as a science, or much attention to the education of their 
flocks in anything but religious duties. In the old days, when seigneur and ctwe both 
derived their income from imposts on produce, the degree of consideration in which a 
habitant was held by his superiors, and consequently his respectability, was settled prin- 
cipally by the amount of wheat he sowed. 

With the energetic development of colonization on the Crown lands, the establish- 
ment of agricultural societies, the opening of roads, the construction of the Provincial 
railway, the liberal aid given by the Government to private railway enterprise, and, 



':'^SgvS^s^mnff i, 








^■«\a 



CHATEAU RICHER. 



above all, the excellent school system, this state of things is fast disappearing. Though 
it may require another generation or two to overcome the influence of habits centuries 
old, originally founded in reason, and still rooted in popular afl^ection by custom and 
tradition, there is every indication that before long Lower Canada and its habitans may 
become in effect what by nature they are meant to be, one of the most prosperous of 
countries and intelligent of peoples. 

Chateau Richer, whicli, in natural beauty, equals L'Ange Gardien, is the next parish 
to the eastward. It gets its name from an old Indian trader, whose chateau near the 



AND CHARACTER 19 

river is now but a small heap of ruins almost lost in the undergrowth. The hill here 
advances abruptly towards the river, forming, where the main road crosses its projecting 
spur, a commanding elevation for the handsome stone church that towers over the cottages 
which line the gracefully receding curve beyond. Not many years ago the blackened 
walls of a convent lay at the foot of this same hill, witnesses of the ruin worked at 
the time of the Conquest. Knox says in his journal, that the priest, at the head of his 
parishioners, fortified the building and held it against an English detachment and two 
pieces of artiller)-, but it was reduced to ashes ; the remnant of its brave garrison were 
scalped by the Iroquois allies of the English. It is far more likely that the brave curd 
stayed with his Hock, to comfort them to the last, than that he led them on. However 
that ma\' be, the convent has been rebuilt, and is now the parish school. 

The seigniories or large tracts in which the land was originally granted, varied 
much in size, but usually corresponded with the ecclesiastical division into parishes. As 
territorial divisions, they have been supplanted by the modern municipal system. Many 
of them are still held by the descendants of the grantees ; others have passed into the 
hands of strangers. Some are owned by religious corporations, the principal of these 
being the Island of Montreal, St. Sulpice and the Lake of Two Mountains — all of 
which belong to the Seminary of St. Sulpice at Montreal — and that of the Cote de 
Beaupre, owned by the Quebec Seminary. Since the abolition of feudal tenure by the 
Act of 1854, which placed a large sum in the hands of the Government, to be paid to 
the seigneurs in extinction of their rights, their former dignity has sadly dwindled. The 
title is, in most cases, but a barren honour, though in one instance — that of the Barony 
of Longueuil — it has recently been recognized as carrying with it a patent of nobility. 
It had been the intention of Louis XIY., in founding a feudal system in Canada, to 
create a territorial aristocracy, but in avoiding the danger of sowing the teeth of the 
dragon it had cost the Bourbons so much to kill, he bestowed his favours upon a class 
unable to support their honours. The consequence was that, in most cases, the seigneur 
made the complaint of the unjust steward, that " to dig he knew not and to beg he was 
ashamed," and prayed to be allowed to drop his nobility and earn his living the best 
way he could. 

The titles had, therefore, nearly quite disappeared before the Conquest. The seig- 
niorial rights were never very extensive. They consisted principally in the Cens et Rentes, 
or annual ground-rent paid by the eensifaire for his holding, and in the Loeis et J^entes, 
or fine collected on each transfer of a property from one tenant to another. The former 
were very trifling, something like two sous per acre being the usual amount in hard 
cash, with a bushel of wheat, a fowl, a pigeon, or a sucking-pig, as payment in kind. 
On rent-day, in the month of November, the farm-yard of the vianoir would present a 
lively scene, in droll contrast to the solemn dignity with which the seigneur, seated in 
his large chair before a table covered with his huge account-books, and in the old days 



20 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE 

with his sword laid in front of him, received the salutations and compliments, and weighed 
the excuses of his censitaires, who rivalled the Irish peasant in chronic impecuniosity 
and ino-enious devices. The Lods et Ventes were a more serious imposition, amounting- 
to one-twelfth of the price of sale. They were a hindrance to the progress of the 
country, for they discouraged improvements by the tenant, and prevented the infusion 
of new blood and the spread of new ideas. They seem, however, not to have been 
considered so by the censitaires themselves. In reality, they were an expression of the 
domesticity of French-Canadians, who dread the breaking up of families, and live for 
generation after generation upon the same land, with a tenacity and affection equalled 
only by their industry and endurance, when at length home and kindred have been left. 
In connection with the motives for the imposition of this fine, one of which, no doubt, 
was the desire to keep the people bound to the land, and another the wish to profit 
by the rare chance of a censitaire having ready money — though the origin of the Lods 
et Ventes in reality leads back to the earliest feudalism — it is curious to note such 
conflicting traits in the same people. The contrast is historical. It was hard to persuade 
the home-loving peasantry of France to emigrate when, in 1663, the King took up so 
vigorously his dream of an Empire in the West. Once in La Nouvelle France, however, 
such was the spirit of adventure, that it almost immediately became necessary to issue 
an edict forbidding their wanderings, and compelling them to make their clearings con- 
tiguous and their parishes as much as possible in the form of those in France. Within 
a hundred years a penalty had to be imposed upon too close settlement and small farms, 
in order to bring the seigneurs' estates all under cultivation. At the present time a 
great aim of the Government is to discourage emigration, and to aid by every means 
. the repatriation of French-Canadians and colonization in the back country. One of the 
most potent means of effecting this is found to be their strong family affection. 

There was another right incidental to the Lods et Ventes — the Droit de Retrait, or 
privilege of pre-emption at the highest price bidden for land within forty days after its 
sale ; this, however, was not much used. The only other right of real consequence was 
the Droit de Banaliti, by which the censitaire was bound to grind his corn at the seig- 
neur s mill, paying one bushel out of every fourteen for toll. This arrangement suited 
the liabitant very well. He is saving enough, and manages to accumulate a little capital 
sometimes, but it goes into the savings bank, not unfrequently into an old stocking. 
The risk of an investment is too much for him, and he used to prefer that the seigneur 
should make the necessary outlays, while all that he was called upon for would be a 
sacrifice of part of his crop. In this way, however, all industrial enterprise was ham- 
pered and discouraged by the monopoly of the water power. Under the French rdgimc, 
a civil and criminal jurisdiction over his vassals, varying in extent according to the 
dignity of the fief, was theoretically vested in the seigneur : and all the three grades 
known to feudal law — the basse, moyenne and haute justice — theoreticall)' existed in 



AND CHARACTER 



21 



Canada, but its exercise was rare, owing to tlie expense of keeping up the machinery 
of a court and the petty amount of its cognizance. 

These rehcs of feudalism have a curious interest to the antiquarian and also a very 
practical one as regards the progress of the country, existing as they did in the New 
World and under the protection of the British Constitution, and still living in the 
memories and language of the present generation. 

One of the most interesting aspects of the feudal tenure was the social relation 
between seigneur and censitaire. This was nearly always a paternal one, so much so, 

indeed, that it was quite as much 
a duty as a right by courtesy of 
the ^cigHiur to stand godfather 
foi the eldest children of his 




WAYSIDE WATERING TROUGH. 



censitaires. Among his many graphic descriptions of life under the Old Regime, 
M. de Gaspe gives an amusing account of a friend receiving a New Year's visit 
from a hundred godsons. The tnanoir was all that "the Great House" of an English 
squire is and more, for the intercourse between scigneicr and censitaire was freer 
and more intimate than that between squire and tenant. In spite of the nominal sub- 
jection, the censitaire was less dependent and subservient than the English peasant. 
It is impracticable here to go into any detailed description of the seigniorial tenure, 
its influences and the mode of its abolition ; but without some knowledge of it, 
the actual as well as the past condition of Lower Canada would be impossible to 
understand. The whole system of colonization originally rested upon two men, the seig- 



22 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE 

jienr and the cure. Through them the Government worked its military and religious 
organizations, while their interests in the soil, from which both derived their income, 
were identical. " The Sword, the Cross, and the Plough " have been said to explain the 
secret of French-Canadian nationality. These three came together in their hands. Of 
course, all around the old French settlements the system of freehold upon which the 
Crown lands are granted has produced great changes in manners, customs, and ideas, 
but the influence of the old state of things is still strongly marked. In the face of all 
the improvements effected and progress made since its abolition, it served its purpose 
well, and, as the Abbe Casgrain remarks, " The democratic and secularizing spirit of 
our age is opposed to these feudal and ecclesiastical institutions, but we may be per- 
mitted to doubt whether it could have invented a system better adapted to the genius 
of our race and to the needs of the situation." 

There are few drives in the Province prettier than that from Quebec to St. Joachim, 
as it winds along between the hills and the river through Beauport, past L'Ange Gar- 
dien, Chateau Richer, and Ste. Anne, crossing en the way the Montmorency, Sault a la 
Puce, Riviere aux Chiens, and Ste. Anne, besides a host of smaller streams. Once out- 
side the toll-gates, the rugged streets of Quebec give place to an excellent macada- 
mized road kept in capital order. In summer, wizened old comperes, too bent and worn 
out for any other work, salute you from the tops of the piles of stones they lazily 
hammer between the complacent puffs of their pipes and their comments on passers-by. 
There is a great deal of work in these old fellows, and their cheerfulness lasts to the 
end. The French-Canadian is a capital labourer, slow perhaps, but sure. He is docile 
and willing, and his light-heartedness gets over all difficulties. " Your merry heart goes 
all the day, your sad one tires in a mile-o," is his motto. In winter you have to turn 
out to let the snow-plough with its great wings and its long team of six or eight horses 
go past amid cheery shouts from its guides, whose rosy faces and icicled beards topping 
the clouds of snow that cover their blanket coats make them look like so many Father 
Christmases. 

There is a great deal to see along the road besides the beautiful scenery that meets 
the eye everywhere. Springs are abundant in the gravelly soil. They trickle down the 
bank under the trees, making delicious nooks by the paths where wooden spouts con- 
centrate their flow. Wells, of course, are not much needed along the hillside. If you 
stop to drink you will probably have an opportunity to appreciate French-Canadian 
civility. The odds are greatly in favour of some of the host of brown-skinned, black- 
eyed, merry-looking children that play about the neighbouring house being sent over to 
ask if " Monsieur will not by preference have some milk ?" You like the clear ice-cold 
water. " Bien, cest bonne lean frette qnami on a soif" but "Monsieur will come in, 
perhaps, and rest, for saere il fait e/iand eet aprls-nu'di." Monsieur, ho\ve\-er, goes on 
amid all sorts of good wishes and polite farewells. 



AA'D CHARACTER 23 

It seems strange to see the women at work in the fields. Their bhie skirts and 
enormous hats, however, are fine bits of detail for a picture, and they having been 
used to such labours all their lives, do not mind it. Young girls of the poorer class 
hire out for the harvest, together with their brothers. At times you may meet troops 
of them on their way to church, their Iwiics Fraiicaises — as store-made boots are still 
called, in contradistinction to bottcs Indicnncs — slung- round their necks. This heavy 




ST. JO.\CHIM. 



labour, however, has told upon the class, if not upon the individual, and, no doubt, 
accounts for the ill-favouredness and thick, squat figures of the lower order of liahitans. 
Even the children take a good share of hard work, and none of the potential energy of 
the family is neglected that can possibly be turned to account. One of the most striking 
sights by the roadside of a night towards the end of autumn are the family groups 
" breaking " flax. After the stalks have been steeped they are dried over fires built in 
pits on the hillsides, then stripped of the outer bark by a rude home-made machine 
constructed entirely of wood, but as effective as it is simple. The dull gleam of the 
sunken fires and the fantastic shadows of the workers make up a strange scene. 

Not the least curious features of the drive are the odd vehicles one meets. Oxen 
do much of the heavier hauling, their pace being quite fast enough for the easy, 
patient temperament of the habitant, to whom distance is a mere abstraction — time 
and tobacco take a man anywhere, seems to be his rule. It is impossible to find out 
the real length of a journey. Ask the first habitant you meet, " How far is it to Saint 
Quelquechose ?" "Deux ou trois lieues, je pense, Monsieur," will be the answer, given 
so thoughtfully and politely that you cannot doubt its correctness. But after you have 
covered the somewhat wide margin thus indicated, you need not be astonished to find 



24 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE 

you have to go still " une lieue et encore," or, as the Scotch put it, " three miles and 
a bittock," nor still, again, to find the "encore" much the best part of the way. 
Another characteristic mode of measuring distance is by the number of pipes to be 
smoked in traversing it. "Deux pipes" is a very variable quantity, and more satisfactory 
to an indeterminate equation than to a hungry traveller. 

The " buckboard " is a contrivance originally peculiar to Lower Canada. It has 
thence found its way, with the French half-breeds, to the North-west, where its simplicity 
and adaptability to rough roads are much appreciated. It is certainly unique in con- 
struction. Put a pair of wheels at each end of a long plank and a movable seat between 
them ; a large load can be stowed away upon it, and you are independent of springs, 
for when one plank breaks another is easily got. The wayside forgeron, or blacksmith, 
need not be a very cunning craftsman to do all other repairs. The charettc, or market- 
cart, is another curiosity on wheels, a cross between a boat and a gig, apparently. The 
caldche is a vehicle of greater dignity, but sorely trying to that of the stranger, as, 
perched high up in a sort of cabriolet hung by leathern straps between two huge 
wheels, he flies up and down the most break-neck hills. The driver has a seat in front, 
almost over the back of the horse, who, if it were not for his gait, would seem quite 
an unimportant part of the affair. 

It is not very long since dog-carts were regularly used in the cities as well as in 
the country, for all kinds of draught purposes, but this has now been humanely stopped. 
Along the roads they are a common sight, and notwithstanding the great strength of 
the dogs used, it is not pleasant to see one of these black, smooth-haired, stoutly- 
built little fellows panting along, half hidden under a load of wood big enough for a 
horse, or dragging a milk-cart with a fat old woman on top of the cans. They are 
generally well-used, however, if one may judge by their good-nature. Out of harness 
they lie about the doors of the houses very contentedly, and, like their masters, are very 
civil to strangers. 

The signs over the little shops that you meet with at rare intervals in the villages, 
are touchingly simple in design and execution. An unpainted board, with lettering 
accommodated to emergencies in the most ludicrous way, sets forth the '' bon marchd" 
to be had within. The forgeron, who is well-to-do — in fact, quite un Jiabitant a son 
aise — has, perhaps, a gorgeous representation of the products of his art. A modest 
placard in the nine-by-four pane of a tiny cottage window, announces " rafraichissement " 
for man, and farther on "une bonne cour d'ecurie " provides for beast. At Ste. 
Anne's, where the little taverns bid against each other for the pilgrim's custom, one 
Jwtellier bases his claim to favour upon the fact of being " epoux de Mdlle. " some- 
body. Whether the Mdlle. was a saint or a publican of renown, the writer knows not. 
But the oddities of these signs would make an article to themselves, and we must pass 
on, with the shining domes of convent and church as landmarks of the next village. 



AND CHARACTER 



2S 



Ev^.y now and then a roadside cross is passed, sometimes a grand Calvairc, resplendent 
with stone and gilding, covered by a roof, and from its high platform showing afar the 
symbol of Christian faith. Statues of the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph sometimes 
stand at each side of the crucifix, but such elaborate shrines are rare, and as a general 
rule a simple wooden cross enclosed by a paling reminds the good Catholic of his 
faith, and is saluted by a reverent lifting of his hat and a pause in his talk as he 




ON THE ROAD TO ST. JOACHIM. 



goes by. Sometimes you meet little chapels like those at Chateau Richer. They 
stand open always, and the country people, as they pass, drop in to say a prayer lo 
speed good souls' deliverance and their own journey. 

A little off the road you may perhaps find the ruins of an old seigniorial ruanoir, out- 
lived by its avenue of magnificent trees. The stout stone walls and iron-barred windows 
tell of troublous times long ago, while the vestiges of smooth lawns and the sleepy 
fishponds show that once the luxury of Versailles reigned here. The old house has 
gone through many a change of hands since its first owner came across the sea, a gay 
soldier in the Carignan regiment, or a scapegrace courtier who had made Paris too hot for 



26 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE 




him. Little is left of it now, save perhaps 
the tiny chapel, buried in a grove of solemn 
oaks. A few, very few, of these old buildings 
have survived. 

Ordinary French - Canadian houses, though 
picturesque enough in some situations, as when 
you come round a corner upon a street like 
that in Chateau Richer, are much alike. A gros habitajit, as a well-to-do farmer is 
called, will have one larger and better furnished than those of his poorer neighbours, 
but the type is the same. They are long, low, one-storey cottages, of wood, sometimes 
of rough stone, but whether of wood or stone, are prim with whitewash often crossed 
with black lines to simulate, in an amusingly conventional wa)', courses of regular 
masonry. By way of variety, they are sometimes painted black or slate colour, 



AND CHARACTER 27 

with white Hnes. Square brick buildings with mansard roofs of tin, bare in archi- 
tecture and surroundings, glaring in newness and hideous with sawed scroll-work, 
are unfortunately springing up over the country in mistaken testimon}- of improve- 
ment. The artist will still prefer the old houses with their unpretentious simplicity 
and rude but genuine expressions of ornament. Their high, sharp-pitched roofs 
spring from a graceful curve at the projecting eaves, over which peep out tiny 
dormer windows. The shingles at the ridge and over the windows are pointed by 
way of decoration. Roof, lintels, and door-posts are gaily painted, for the habitant 
loves colour even if the freedom with which he uses the primaries is at times 
rather distracting to more cultivated eyes. A huge chimney built outside the 
house projects from the gable end, and sometimes the stairway also has to find room 
outside, reminding one of the old French towns whose architecture served to model 
these quaint buildings. A broad gallery runs along the front, furnishing pleasant 
shade under its vines, but darkening the interior into which small casement windows 
admit too little light and air. Sometimes a simple platform, with ricketty wooden 
steps at each end or a couple of stones leading to the door, takes the place of the 
gallery and affords room for a few chairs. A resting-place of some kind there must 
be, for in summer the leisure time of the habitant is spent at the door, the women 
knitting, the men smoking the evil-smelling native tobacco, while every passer-by gives 
a chance for a gossip and a joke. The heavy wooden shutters, a survival of the old 
Indian-fighting times, are tightly closed at night, giving an appearance of security little 
needed, for robberies are almost unknown, and in many districts locks are never used. 
In day-time, the white linen blinds in front are drawn down, which gives a rather funereal 
look, and the closing of the shutters cuts off the light at night, making the roads very 
cheerless to the traveller. 

In the district of Quebec, the people are very fond of Bowers. Even very poor 
cottages have masses of brilliant bloom in the windows and little garden plots in front 
neatly kept and assiduously cultivated, for the altar of the parish church is decorated 
with their growth, and the children present their firstfruits as an offering at their first 
communion. An elm or two, with masses of beautiful foliage, may afford grateful shade 
from the intensity of the summer sun. A row of stiff Normandy poplars, brought from 
old France in Champlain's or Frontenac's time perhaps, is sure to be found bordering 
the kitchen garden that is fenced off from the road more by the self-grown hedge of rasp- 
berry and wild rose than by the dilapidated palings or tumble-down stone wall. A great 
want, however, in the surroundings of most French farms is foliage, for practical as well as 
aesthetical objects. The grand second growth of maples, birches and elms that succeeds 
the primaeval forest has been ruthlessly cut away, till the landscape in many districts, 
especially on the north shore, between Quebec and Montreal, is painfully bare in fore- 
ground, while the houses are exposed to the keen north wind and the cattle have no 



28 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE 




i'J?Vi*yIflDf-j^, 



" '^ J- - - ■" 



AN OLD ORCHARD. 

shelter from the sun and storm. In 

the French time the houses were 

generally surrounded by orchards at once ornamental and 

profitable. One may even now occasionally come across 

some descendants of them owing their origin to sunny 

France. In the Cote de Beaupre you will see them still, 

but they have in too many cases disappeared, and it is 

only within a few years past that fruit-growing has been systematically taken up by 

the habitans. The large orchards regularly cultivated on the Island of Montreal, 

show with what success the beautiful " St. Lawrence," the well-named Fameuse, and the 

golden Pomme Grise, a genuine little Normandy pippin, can be grown. Plums, yellow 

and blue, grow wild in abundance. A small, reddish-purple fruit, of pleasant flavour and 

not unlike a wild cherry in appearance, is plentiful, as are also cherries, wild and 

cultivated. 

The number and beauty of the waterfalls on the Lower St. Lawrence are astonishing. 
Every stream must find its way to the river over the immense bank, and must cut 
its channel through the tremendous hills. In the Cote de Beaupre alone, there are 
doz,ens of magnificent falls not known to Canadians even by name, though within a 
few miles of, sometimes close to, the main road. Those on the Riviere aux Chiens 
and those from which the Sault 4 la Puce is named, are only two examples. The Falls 
of Ste. Anne and those of St. Fereol are sometimes heard of, yet even they, grand 
as they are and lovely in their surroundings, are rarely visited. Both are on the 



AND CHARACTER 29 

Grande Riviere Ste. Anne, which divides the parishes. Its course is nearly opposite 
to that of the St. Lawrence, and is throughout nothing but a succession of tumultuous 
rapids and stupendous cataracts. 

Leaving the road where the stream crosses, at which point there is a splendid 
view of Mount Ste. Anne, the highest of the innumerable peaks that break the sky- 
line as you look down the river from Quebec, a drive of three miles throueh beau- 
tiful woods leads within sound of falling water. Another mile over a lovely path 
through the heart of the forest, and a steep descent into a ravine, brings you face to 
face with an immense wall of granite, its base a mass of tilted angular blocks. The 
river narrows here, concentrating all its powers for its tremendous leap into the gorge 
that forms the main channel, but only the swift rush of the water, the cloud of 
spray and the deep reverberations that echo from the cliff tell of its fate. A 
clamber over inclined and slippery rocks, beautiful with lichens of every hue, must 
be risked before, lying at full length, you can see the perpendicular column of crystal 
beaten into snowy foam on the rocks over a hundred feet below. Shooting down a 
second pitch the torrent breaks and rises in plume-like curves. Myriads of glittering 
gems dance in the play of sunlight upon the spray. Far above, the precipice rises 
stark and gray, its face seamed with titanic masonry, its crest crowned with huge battle- 
ments, like the wall of a gigantic fortress. The trees that banner it above seem no larger 
than the tufts of grass that cling in the crevices of its perfectly perpendicular front ; 
great buttresses support this mountain wall, polished and bright with perpetual moisture. 
Other two channels tear their way down the cliff in falls of less volume and grandeur, 
but of great beauty as they leap from shelf to shelf, uniting at the foot in a large circular 
basin worn deep into the black basalt. So still and dark, it is well named " The 
Devil's Kettle." 

The chasm through which the main body of the stream flows is narrow enough to 
jump over ; but his would be a steady brain who could face the leap, and a sure fate 
who should miss his foothold. The island in the centre towers up in a succession of 
giant steps, each a huge cube of rock. These one may descend, and gain a front view 
of all three Falls. Down stream one looks through the narrow cleft till the boiling 
torrent is suddenly shut out from view by a sharply-projecting spur. The rocks seem 
to jar under the immense weight of the falling water ; eye and ear are overpowered. 
The scene is one of unparalleled grandeur. 

Farther up the Ste. Anne, after a beautiful drive along its west bank and round the 
base of the mountain, the hill-girt village of St. Fereol is reached. Through forest 
glades, where the moss-festooned spruces mourn over the prostrate trunks of their giant 
predecessors, and sunlit copses where the golden leaves of the silver birch mingle with 
the crimson of the dying maples, the delicate emerald of the quivering aspen and the 
warm russet of the ferns in magic harmonies of autumn hues, the way winds on to 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE 




FALLS OF ST. FEREOL. 



S'-^ 



where the Seven Falls chase each other down the 

rocky face of a huge hill in masses of broken water. 

Down a narrow cleft in the evergreens which stand in bold relief against the sky, 

''omes the first and largest Fall. Leaping from step to step, the torrent dashes over 



AND CHARACTER 31 

the second shelf in clouds of spray, its snowy fragments uniting again only to be 
parted by a projecting rock, past which the twin rapids rush, chafing from side 
to side, as if in search of each other, until they join, and plunge together over 
the fourth shelf. The fifth Fall pours down a steep decline and whirls in foaming 
eddies round the inky depths of a rocky basin, upon which looks out through the mist 
a cave called " Le Trou de St. Patriee." Turning sharply to the left, the stream rolls on 
in heavy waves of dark water to the sixth Fall, and then sweeping through close walls 
of rock, plunges into an inaccessible abyss. On both sides of the river deep ravines 
and high promontories follow each other in rapid succession, and a thick growth of 
forest clothes the whole. 

Within the last fifteen years, agriculture has made great advances in some parts of 
the Province, much of which, however, yet remains in a primitive enough condition. Long 
isolation, a fertile soil, simplicity of life and of wants, have combined to keep the 
French-Canadian farmer pretty much what he was in the middle of the last century. In 
some respects his ancestors were better than he ; they worked on a larger scale and had 
more energ}'. The Conquest, with its consequent wholesale emigration, and the unsettled 
political state of the country down to 1S40, nearly extinguished all the spirit and in- 
dustry that had survived the exactions of ot^cials and the effects of Avar during the 
French period. Among the liabitans farming is decidedly still in its infanc)'. Tilling, 
sowing, reaping and storing are all done by hand. In the back parishes the rudest of 
home-made ploughs, dragged along by a couple of oxen, and a horse who seems to 
move the oxen that they ma)' move the plough, barely scratch up the soil. A French- 
Canadian harrow is the most primaeval of implements, being at best a rough wooden 
rake, and often merely a lot of brushwood fastened to a beam. The scythe and 
the sickle are not yet displaced by mowing machines ; all the ingenious contrivances 
for harvesting, binding and storing, are unknown. Threshing is still done by flails and 
strong arms, though once in a while you may hear the rattle of a treadmill where the 
little black pony tramps away as sleepily and contentedly as his master sits on a fence- 
rail smoking. 

Wheat, barley, oats, maize and buckwheat, peas and beans, are the principal grain 
crops. The beet-root, however, is attracting attention, in consequence of the establish- 
ment of beet-root sugar factories, an enterprise cordially furthered by Government aid but 
yet in its experimental stage. Should this industry be successful, it will give a great 
impetus to farming, and the undertaking has the merit — no small one, in the people's 
opinion — of being distinctly French. Hay is abundant and very good. Flax and hemp 
are raised. Tobacco thrives admirably in the short but intensely warm summer. 
Patches of its tall, graceful, broad-leaved plants waving in the wind alongside the yel- 
low tassels of the Indian corn, heighten the foreign aspect around some old cottage. 
Vegetables of every kind grow luxuriantly. Delicious melons are abundant and cheap. 



32 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE 

All sorts of garden fruit — strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries and currants — are 
plentiful. Strawberries are now grown in large quantities for the town markets. Grapes 
grow wild in abundance. Immense quantities of maple sugar are yearly produced by 
the "sugar bushes" on the slopes of the hills. Its domestic use is universal among 
the liabitans, and in the towns the syrup, sugar and laitere — or the sugar in an un- 
crystallized, pummy state — are in great demand. The processes of tapping the trees, 
collecting the sap, "boiling down," and "sugaring off," have been described too often 
to repeat here ; but a visit to a sugar camp will well repay anybody who has not 
seen one, and is a favourite amusement for picnickers. The French-Canadians cling 
to the most primitive methods in this, as in everything else, the result, if an economic 
loss, being at least a picturesque gain. 

Such fertility as the Province possesses should make it a rich agricultural country. 
It is really so. A very erroneous impression exists that all the best land has been 
exhausted ; but this is an idea akin to the one that every French-Canadian wears 
moccasins and is called Jean Baptiste. It is quite true that a couple of hundred years 
of persistent tillage upon an evil routine, and want of opportunities to see anything 
better, have run down the old French farms ; but even as it is, they yield well. Many 
an English farmer would be gflad to get such land, and would work wonders with a 
little manure and proper rotation of crops. Then there are millions of acres yet 
untouched. The state of affairs in the Cote de Beaupre is described only as being 
an interesting relic of a period almost past. Agriculture is in a state of transition. 
Already the advantages of rich soil, magnificent summer climate, and cheap labour, 
are being realized. 

At Ste. Anne, history and tradition blend with the life and manners of to-day in a 
most striking way. The first settlers in the C6te de Beaupre built a little church on 
the bank of the St. Lawrence, and dedicated it to La Bonne Ste. Anne, in memory, 
no doubt, as Ferland says, of the celebrated pilgrimage of Sainte Anne d'Auray in 
Bretagne. The bank, however, was carried away by the ice and the floods. So another 
building was commenced in 1657 upon the site pointed out by M. de Oueylus, the 
Vicar-General, and given by Etienne de Lessard. It was finished in 1660. The Gov- 
ernor, M. d'Argenson, laid the first stone, and the work was done by the pious labour 
of the Jiabitans. As one of these, Louis Guimont by name, racked with rheumatism, 
painfully struggled to place three stones in the foundation, he suddenly found his health 
restored. Thenceforward, La Bonne Ste. Anne de Beaupre became famous throughout 
all Canada. Among the pilgrims that flocked to celebrate her fete each year, were 
conspicuous the Christian Hurons and Algonquins, in whom their missionaries had 
inspired a special devotion for the mother of the Blessed Virgin. To this day their 
descendants are to be found among the thousands of worshippers whom the steamers 
carry from Quebec. The pilgrimage is not always such an easy excursion. Those who 



AND CHARACTER 



33 



have special favours to implore, often trudge on foot the long journey to the shrine. 
A pyramid of crutches, trusses, bandages, and spectacles stands in the church, to attest 
the miraculous cures worked by faith and prayer. 

The site of the old church is marked by a chapel built with the old materials. 
It is roughly finished within, containing only a few stained seats and a bare-looking 
altar which stands between two quaint images of Ste. Marie Magdelaine and Ste. Anne, 







CHAPEL AND GROTTO AT STE. ANNE DE BEAUPRE. 



apparently of the time of Louis XIV. By the roadside, close to the chapel, stands a 
rough grotto surmounted by the image of the sainte set in a niche, over which again 
there is a cross. Over the stones pours the clear water of a spring ; this the pilgrims 
take away in bottles, for the sake of its miraculous healing power. Near-by is the old 
presbytery, and farther up the wooded slope, hidden among the trees, is a convent of 
Hospital Nuns. Their gentleness and kindness to the sick that resort here should 



34 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE 



suffice to canonize each one of these devoted ladies, whose lives are as beautiful as 
their surroundings. 

A handsome new church was dedicated in 1876. To it were removed the old 
altar and pulpit, both of the seventeenth century, and the relics and original ornaments 
of the old church. Among these are an altar-piece by Le Brun, the gift of the 
Marquis de Tracy; a silver reliquary, and a painting by Le Francois, both the gift 
of Mons. de Laval : a chasuble worked by Anne of Austria, and a bone of the finger 
of Ste. Anne. There are also a great number of ex-voto tablets — some very old and 




OLD HOUSES AT POINT LEVIS. 



by good masters — to commemorate deliverances from peril at sea, for Ste. Anne watches 
specially over sailors and travellers. Numbers of costly vestments have also been 
presented, and Pius IX., in addition to giving a fac simile of the miraculous portrait 
of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, set in a jewelled frame, issued a decree declaring the 
shrine to be of the first magnitude. 

There are many other places in the neighbourhood of Quebec which, if not such 
exact types of the past nor so varied in natural features as is the Cote de Beaupre, 
yet afforci beauty of scenery, historic association, and opportunit)- to study the life of 



AND CHARACTER :.5 

the people. It is hard to choose, but a few should be visited, and among these Point 
Levis stands first in geographical order and in interest of all kinds. 

Landing at Indian Cove, where the descendants of those Iroquois, who got from 
the English Government so much a-piece for every French scalp, used to build their 
wigwams, to await the distribution of the annual bount}-, one finds a splendid graving 
dock being built on the ver)' spot where they hauled up their bark canoes. The cliff 
is a worthy mate for Cape Diamond. P^rom its tree-lined summit rolling hills covered 
with houses, fields and woods, so that the country looks like an immense park, stretch 
back to the sky-line, in pleasant c'ontrast with the abrupt outline of the other shore. 
The main street lies between the river and the jagged face of the rock. At each end 
it climbs the clift" in zigzags, between old houses whose fantastic shapes, peaked roofs 
and heavy balconies make the place seem like some old Norman town. At one point 
where a spring trickles down the cliff, a wooden stairway leads from the lovver to the 
upper town. Close by stand the old and new churches of St. Joseph, the latter a huge 
stone building of the usual t)pe, the former a rude little chapel, with an image of the 
saint in a niche over the door. Everywhere there is, as in Quebec, this meeting of 
the old and the new. The Intercolonial Railway trains shake the foundations of the 
old houses, and interrupt, with their shrill whistle, the chant of the boys at vespers in 
the College chapel. Tugs puff noisily along with big ships, where Wolfe's flotilla stole 
so silently under the cliffs the night before the battle on the Plains of Abraham, and 
barges of the same pattern as those in which his soldiers crossed lie side by side 
with Allan steamships. Back of the heights from which his batteries pounded Quebec 
into ruins, and where Montgomery's men, wasted with their winter march through the 
wilds, waited for strength to carry out their daring attack, three modern forts dominate 
the South Channel and the land approaches. Planned with all the skill of the Royal 
Engineers, their casemates are meant for guns beside wiiich the cannon that last did their 
work here would look like pop-guns. The view from them is superb. On the east a 
rolling plateau, densely wooded, stretches to the distant mountains of Maine. Opposite 
stands Quebec, the lower town in deep shadow beneath the cliff, the upper town 
glistening in the sun. Up and down the river the eye can roam from Cap Rouge 
to Crosse Isle, and never weary of the colossal extent of mountain, river and 
forest. 

The forts are in charge of the batterv of Canadian artillery stationed at Ouebec. 
Many of the men are French-Canadians, and excellent soldiers they make. In cheerful 
submission to discipline, respect for their officers, and intelligence, the French militia 
corps are superior to the English in the rural districts. Among the Field Artillery, 
the most technical arm of the service, — so much so, indeed, that in England the mili- 
tary authorities have not yet ventured to form volunteer batteries, — the Quebec Field 
Battery composed entirely of French-Canadians, is a model of equipment, drill and 



36 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE 

discipline, and is, after a few days of annual training, quite undistinguishable from the 
permanently-embodied corps in the Citadel. 

About five miles to the northwest of Quebec is the Indian villaee of Lorette. 
Every Charter for the settlement of La Nouvelle France repeats in substance the 
words of that granted by Richelieu to the Company of the One Hundred Associates, 
the object of which was "to endeavour by Divine assistance to lead the people therein 
to the knowledge of the true God, to cause them to be disciplined and instructed in 
the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman faith." In fact the earlier settlements were as 
professedly, missions as trading enterprises. The idea of a regular colony on a large 
scale did not take shape till the time of Louis XIV., under whom, as his hereditary 
title of Most Christian Majesty demanded, the interests of religion were by no means 
a secondary consideration. The Hurons were the first fruits of missionary devotion. 
In 1634 the Jesuits Brebeuf, Daniel, and Dauost, took up the work begun by the 
Recollet fathers, Viel and Le Caron, and the Jesuit Sagard, twelve years before. 
By 1650 the whole nation was professedly Christian. The descendants of these 
Hurons, only a few hundreds all told, are quite civilized, quiet, orderly, and peace- 
able. Many of them are well educated, comfortably off and cultivating good farms. 
The love of the forest and of the chase is, however, too deep in their natures to 
be totally eradicated, and the younger men are fond of getting away to the woods. 
You never find an Indian ashamed of his blood ; these still call themselves proudly 
" The Huron Nation," and on ofiicial occasions, such as the visit of a Governor or 
the Indian Commissioner, their chiefs wear full Indian costume. Among them are a 
few Abenakis and other representatives of the great Algonquin family, to which the 
Montagnais of the Lower St. Lawrence, the only really "wild Indians" of Lower 
Canada, also belong. The French term " Sattvage" is much more expressive than 
" Indian," but seems rather a misnomer when applied to some of the fair-complexioned, 
well-dressed and polished inhabitants of Lorette, among whom there is a great ad- 
mixture of white blood. They do a large business in all sorts of embroidery, in 
silk and porcupine quills upon birch-bark and deer-skin, make snow-shoes, bead-work, 
moccasins, and other curiosities. The old church is shown with much pride, for the 
Hurons are good Catholics. The school is another of their sights. The children 
sing with a vigour suggestive of a war-dance rather than a h)-mn, but their bright, 
intelligent faces, and the musical name of the performance, reassure one as to 
his scalp. They get thorough instruction, and are apt pupils. After school some 
of them, are always ready to show visitors the Falls, for a branch of the St. Charles 
runs through the village, and as has been said before, wherever there is a stream in 
this country there are Falls. A paper-mill intrudes its dam upon the bed of the 
river at their head, and spoils what was once a grand sheet of water covering with 
a crystal curtain the now bare rock ; but a sharp turn in the deep gorge soon hides 



AND CHARACTER 







FALLS OF LORETTE. 



38 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE 



this, and the view from below has nothino- to detract from its minarled grrandeur and 
loveHness, to which words cannot do justice. 









__J 



CAP ROUGE. 



Following the south shore of the St. Lawrence from Point Levis all the way 
up to the Chaudiere the same magnificent panorama repeats itself with subtle 




CAPE DIAMOND, FROM ST. ROMUALD. 



gradations as distance softens down the details of the landscape and new features 
come into sight. At St. Romuald the view down the river is very grand. The 



AND CHARACTER 39 

bold outline of Cape Diamond stands clear cut against the sky. Beyond are the 
purple peaks that close in on the St. Charles, and the misty hills that surround the 
headwaters of the Montmorency peep through the pass up which the Charlesbourg 
road winds to Lake Beauport. To the right the conical mass of Mount Ste. Anne 
towers over the ridge of Levis. Below runs the river dark under the shadow of banks 
seamed with leafy coves, but losing itself in the sunshine that makes fairyland of the 
Beauport shore. Every place in sight has some historic or traditional association ro 
add another charm. 

From St. Romuald it is not far to the Chaudiere Falls, whose abrupt and tremen- 
dous plunge fully justifies their name. There are many Chaudieres in Canada, the term 
being generic, but this " Chaldron " is grand and tumultuous enough to be typical of 
all, and to name the whole river. It and the Montmorency Falls are probably but 
miniatures of the unspeakably magnificent cataract that once must have existed at Cap 
Rouge, that grand promontory seven miles above Quebec, where the great rock cliffs 
close in and confine the St. Lawrence into river-like dimensions. There are strong 
indications that the river must once have been dammed up here behind a great barrier, 
over which, just as its tributaries now find their way into it over the surrounding 
plateau, it flowed into the sea in a flood compared with which Niagara would be a 
driblet. In some of the mighty convulsions that heaved the Laurentian rocks — the 
oldest geological formation of all — from their depths, and shaped their towering peaks, 
this barrier must have given way and the stream have fallen to its present level. 

The rich red rock which gives it its name and the bold outline of its cliff, make 
Cap Rouge as conspicuous as Cape Diamond. On this '' promontoirc hiutc ct raidc" 
Jacques Cartier built a fort, to guard his ships when he returned to Stjdacona on his 
third voyao-e, in 1541, and Roberval wintered there the following year, rebu Iding Cartier's 
fort, and naming it " France Roy," in honour of the King. The beauty of the forests 
that crown the cliffs and the fertility of the soil are still as remarkable as when Cartier 
wrote of the ''fort bonnes ct belles tei-7'cs pleines d'aussi beaux et puissants arbres que I'on 
pu/sse voir an nionde." 

Along the river in the autumn, wild ducks and geese appear in large numbers, while 
farther back partridges and wild pigeons are abundant, and trout can always be had for 
the catching. Many of the liabitans are very skilful with rod and gun, rivalling the 
Indian half-breeds — wiry, long-haired, black -visaged, wild -looking fellows, who make a 
regular business of shooting and fishing. Down the Gulf fish is, of course, the great 
stand-by. Eels, which swarm in the mouths of the streams, are speared in immense 
numbers. They are a favourite dainty, and are salted for winter use, as are also great 
quantities of wild fowl. 

These peeps at the country about Quebec might be prolonged indefinitely, such is 
the number of charming spots to be reached by an easy drive. But all this time we 



40 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE 








LIGHT-SHIP ON THE ST. LAWRENCE. 



have been looking at the habitant in a long-cultivated, thickly-settled region, and there 

is another phase of his life which can only be seen in the wilds. A journey up 

the St. Maurice gives good opportunity for 

appreciating it, but to get to the St. Maurice 

one must go to Three Rivers, and by far 

the best way of doing this is to make the 

night voyage up the St. Lawrence by the 

Richelieu Company's steamer. A moonlight 

scene on the St. Lawrence is such as to leave 

a deep impression of the majesty of the great 

river up which Cartier toiled for a fortnight 

to reach .Stadacona, far beyond which he heard 

there was "a great sea of fresh water, of 

which there is no mention to have seen the 

end." The way is not less well marked in 

summer than in winter. Light-houses stand at 

every bend, while buoys and light-ships, moored 

in midstream, point out the channel. When 

night has closed in, the twinkle of the far light 

is reflected across the water for miles, broadening out at last into brilliant glare ; 

beneath one gets a momentary glimpse of the black hull and square tower of a light- 




HALF. BREED ITSHKKMAN. 



AND CHARACTER 4^ 

ship, with weird shadows moving across the cheerful gleam from the cosy cabin. Huge 
black masses loom up suddenly and glide past in silence. Long, snake-like monsters 
are left snorting astern. A group of water demons sing in wild chorus round a float- 
ine blaze. All manner of strang-e stars flicker low down on the horizon, chaneintT their 
lines with sudden flashes. Everything is dim, shadowy and weird, till, suddenly, the 
moon bursts through the heavy clouds, shows the dull outline of the distant bank, 
gleams white on the canvas of a passing ship, reveals the long string of deep-laden 
barsfes followingr the sobbing tugr and dims the brightness of the raftsmen's fire. 

Three Rivers dates far back in the history of French colonization in Canada. 
On one of the islands at the mouth of the noble tributary which here enters the 
St. Lawrence, Cartier, in 1534, planted a cross in the name of the King of France. 
In 1599 Pontgrave gave it the name of Riviere des Trois Rivieres, from the appearance 
which two of the islands give it of being three separate streams ; Cartier had christened 
it Riviere de Foie, from the Breton family of that name. Champlain and Pontgrave 
ascended it as far as the first rapids, and a little later Champlain made the mouth of 
the stream a rendezvous for the Hurons who joined him in his expedition against the 
Iroquois, the river being the highway of the tribes who, came from the interior to 
barter furs with the French traders, having been driven away from the St. Lawrence 
by the Iroquois. Traces of an old Algonquin stockade that stood where the upper town 
is now, and was destroyed before Champlain's time, were found when the boulevard 
facing the St. Lawrence was made. 

One of the Recollet fathers who came with Champlain in 161 5, celebrated the 
first mass. Colonists came two years later, and a mission was founded. In 1634 
a regular trading dejsot was established, as Pontgrave had proposed to do long before, 
when Tadoussac was preferred by his superior Chauvin. For a long time this was the 
extreme outpost of the French, and was held only by exceeding vigilance and bravery, 
which more than once saved Quebec from imminent danger. In 1624 Champlain's 
diplomacy brought together here one of the greatest assemblages of Indians ever 
known upon the Continent, and secured a treaty of peace between Hurons, Algonquins, 
Iroquois, and French. The Mohawks could not long resist the desire to use their 
newly-acquired fire-arms furnished by the Dutch and English, and then followed the 
bloody scenes which ended only with the arrival of the long prayed-for troops from 
France in 1665. The Hurons and Algonquins were almost exterminated, and the 
French were sore pressed. This was the heroic age of the colony so vigorously 
described by Parkman. The fur-traders of Three Rivers bore their part in it well, 
and when there was no more fighting to do their venturesome spirits found outlet in 
the existing work of exploration, for with the establishment of Montreal the im- 
portance of Three Rivers as a trading-post had begun to decline, and the necessity 
of being farther afield, to say nothing of the half-wild nature of the conrcurs de 



42 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE 



bois, led them on. The missionaries whose outpost, in the crusade against Satan 
and his Indian allies, Three Rivers also was, had set them an example. Jean 
Nicolet lived and died here, and the old Chateau of the Governors, in which 
La Verendraye lived, still stands. 

Not far from the Chateau is the original parish church, the oldest in Canada 




INTERIOR OF PARISH CHURCH. 



except the one at Tadoussac. It has the oldest records, for those of Quebec were 
burned in 1640. They begin on February 6th, 1635, in Pere Le Jeune's handwriting, 
with the statement that M. de la Violette, sent by Champlain to found a Jiahitafio7i, 
landed at Three Rivers on July 4th, 1634, with a party of French, mostly artizans, and 



AND CHARACTER 



43 



commenced the work ; that the Jesuits Le Jeune and Buteux came on the 8th of 
September, to be with them for the salvation of their souls, and that several of them 
died of scurvy during the winter. The chapel of the Jesuit mission served till 1664, 
when a wooden church, with presbytery, cemetery and garden, was built. Fifty years 




OLD CHIMNEY AND CHATEAU. 



later the stone church that yet stands on a corner of the old parochial property was 
erected ; it is an interesting relic of a by-gone time, and its hallowed associations make 
it for the devout Roman Catholic a place from which the grand new Cathedral cannot 
draw him. 

The beauty of the rich oak carving which lines the whole interiop was sadly 



44 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE 



destroyed by a spasm of cleanliness on the part of the authorities, who a few 
years ago painted it white, but fortunately this style of renovation has not gone 
farther, and the old paintings and sculpture, of which there is a profusion, remain 
intact. The church is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception. 
The cui-d and 

the marguilliers — : " — ^ =- = ^~=^- — ^ —~- - "1 

form the fa- 
brique, or admin- 
istrative bod) of 
the corporation 
which every par- 
ish constitutes. 
The curd's share 
in temporal mat- 




ters is, however, limited to the 

presidency of all meetings, and 

in this as well as in the keeping 

of registers of civil status he is 

a public officer, constrainable by 

mandaviiis to the exercise of his 

duties. He appoints the choristers, keeps the keys, and has the right to be buried 

beneath the choir of the church, even in Quebec and Montreal, where interments 

within the city limits are prohibited. 

The parishes are designated in the first place by the bishop, and are then civilly 
constituted by the Lieutenant-Governor on the report of five commissioners under the 
Great Seal, after all parties have been heard. Being corporations, their powers are de- 
fined, and exercise of them regulated by the civil law. The revenues are raised and 



AND CHARACTER 45 

extraordinary expenses defrayed by assessment approved by general meetings. The 
manner in which the curds are paid varies a good deal. They are legally entitled to 
a tithe in kind, of one portion in twenty-six on all grain grown in the parish by Roman 
Catholics, except upon lands newly-cleared, which are exempt for the first five years. The 
tithe must be thrashed, winnowed, and put in the priest's barn. In many parts of the 
Province, however, what is known as the supplement — a money payment — takes the place 
of, or is combined with, the tithe. 

The St. Maurice Forges, on the right bank of the St. Maurice River, about seven 
miles above Three Rivers, are the oldest smelting furnaces in Canada, and dispute 
with those of Principio, in Maryland, the right to be considered the oldest in America. 
The deposits of bog-ore were known very early to the Jesuits. In 1668 they were 
examined by the Sieur la Potardien, who reported unfavourably to the Intendant Talon 
as to their quantity and quality. Frontenac and De Denonville gave a better account 
of them, and it seems that tests were made before the year 1700. It was not till 1737, 
however, that a company was found to work them. This company was granted a large 
tract, including the site where the Old Forges now stand, and erected furnaces, but 
exhausted its capital, and in 1740 had to surrender its charter. The Government carried 
on the works very successfully, as a report of the Colonial Inspector Tranquet shows, 
and must have extended them, as appears by the erection of the old Chateau that stands 
on a flat bluff overlooking the river. On an iron plate in its chimney are the official 
fleurs de lis and the date 1752. Its walls, some two and a half feet thick, withstood the 
fire that destroyed its woodwork in 1863. 

A brook flows through the ravine immediately below the Chateau. It furnished 
water-power for the oldest works, remains of which are to be seen near its mouth. The 
attachments of an old shaft show that a trip-hammer was used, and there are other signs 
of extensive works for making wrought iron. From 250 to 300 men were employed, 
under directors who had gained their skill in Sweden. Many of the articles made then — 
notably stoves — still attest the quality of the iron and of the work. Pigs and bars were 
sent to France. During the war, shot and shell were cast. When the English came to 
take possession, the Chateau was occupied by a Demoiselle Poulin, who threw the keys 
into the river rather than yield them. Legends of mysterious lights and buried treasure 
cling to the place. After the Conquest the works were leased to private persons, and 
have passed through several hands before coming into those of the present owners, who 
use most of the product in the manufacture of car-wheels at Three Rivers. 

The original blast-furnace, or cupola — a huge block of granite masonry, thirty feet 
square at the base — is still used for smelting ; the fire has rarely been extinguished, 
except for repairs, during the past 150 years. In a deep-arched recess is the "dam" 
from which the molten metal is drawn into beds of sand, to cool into pigs. During the 
time between "runs" or "casts" glowing slag is continually being drawn oft. The 



4S 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE 



cupola is kept filled from the top with ore, broken limestone, and charcoal. The latter 
is made in immense kilns near the forge, from wood furnished in abundance by the sur- 
rounding forests. Against the volumes of white vapour from these kilns the old iron- 
works stand out, gloomy and black with the smoke and grime of generations. The 
limestone is obtained a short distance up the river, and the ore — dark-red spongy stuff, 
yielding forty per cent, of iron — is brought in by the habitans, who find it between two 
beds of sand on land that yields no crops, so that they are only too glad to dig it up. 
The works are surrounded by a little hamlet of workmen's cottages. An amphitheatre 
of wooded hills surrounds the scene. These rise gradually to the left, and over them 




FALLS OF THE CHAUDIERE— NEAR QUEBEC. 



is seen the dark outline of the Laurentlan range, against which is set the gleaming spire 
of St. Etienne Church. The lesser hills, across the St. Maurice to the right, are topped 
by Mount Carmel, and far up the stream the Shawenegan Mountains consort with the 
Piles peaks. 

There is, perhaps, nothing in Canada that more forcibly strikes the English eye than 
the wild and silent grandeur of our mighty rivers. Though only ranking third among 
the tributaries of the St. Lawrence, the St. Maurice is a noble stream. During spring 
and early summer it becomes a raging flood fed by the melting snow and rains of the 
great northern water-shed, and even when the parching heat of summer has dried up its 
sources it remains a navigable stream nearly a quarter of a mile wide far above its mouth. 



AND CHARACTER 



47 




48 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE 



Far to the north, 220 miles from the St. Lawrence, this river rises in a net-work 
of lakes and small water-courses, which feed also its elder brothers, the Ottawa and 
the Saguenay. It pursues its tortuous way in a main direction nearly south, while 







HEAD OF SHAWENEGAN FALLS. 



the others diverge so widely to the west and east that their several dcbo^ichements into 
the St. Lawrence are divided by a space of more than three hundred miles. All the 
upper part of the St. Maurice's traverses are unbroken wilderness, untrodden b)- the foot 
of man, except the few Indians and trappers who yet represent the aboriginal occupants, 
the Hudson's Bay voyageurs and traders who still use this route as a means of access to 
their remoter posts, and the lumberers whose camps and shanties have been already 
pushed two hundred miles back into the interior, and the ring of whose axes is heard 
at the head of every stream down which a saw-log can be floated in the freshets of the 



AND CHARACTER 



49 






Spring. Nothing can be more lovely than the constantly varied and unexpected beauty 
of the reaches of river, lake and stream, the water-falls, rapids, wild rocks, densely-wooded 
hills and forest glades with which this wild region is filled. 

One hundred miles from its mouth the river meets civilization at the foot of the 
wild Falls of the "Tuque" (so called from the fancied resemblance of a hill in the 
vicinity to the French-Canadian head-gear of that name), in the form of a steamer which 

traverses a stretch of sixty miles to the 
" Piles," whence a railway to the front gives 
the go-by to the formidable but picturesque 
rapids and falls of the Lower St. Maurice. 
The first of these is the Grais, so-called 
because the old portage led across granite 
rocks now occupied by a saw-mill and 
all its unlovely litter of lumber, saw- 
dust and slabs. Here the river 
dashes itself over and through 
enormous rocks, which cause twin 
falls and a boiling rapid. A 
few evergreens cling- to the 
rocks, and a low bench supports 
a scant growth of bushes, but 
above the river the tree-clad 
heights rise in successive steps. 
The unlimited water-power 
has caused the place to be se- 
lected as the headquarters of 
one of the vast lumbering estab- 
lishments whose chiefs are kines 
in all but name. The proprietor 
of this establishment is practically 
king of the St. Maurice. The 
farmers, who compose the scant 
population of the neighbourhood, 
are dependent upon him for a 
market and for supplies of all 
they need from the outside world. Their crops are consumed by his horses and men, 
and their sons and brothers find employment in his service. The village about the mill 
is his property and the inhabitants are his servants. Hundreds of men and horses, 
under the direction of scores of foremen, labour for him through summer and winter. 







LITTLE SHAWRNEGAN. 



50 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE 

undergoing the severest toil and perilling their lives to carry out his behests. His 
will is their law, his wages are their subsistence, and promotion in his service is 
their reward. Every foreman is chosen from the ranks of this great family. Should 
one of them take service with a rival house, he can never return to his allegiance. 
Great qualities of leadership are required for success in these vast enterprises, but if the 
rule of the lumber king is despotic, it is also patriarchal and beneficent. 

. For some distance above the Grais settlements continue on both sides of the river, 
but the stream itself is generally flanked by forest. High hills rise abruptly from its 
edge, and the land is a succession of well-defined benches. Good soil is found in the 
intervales of the tributaries, but some distance from the main river which in its course 
through the mountains forms many rapids and falls. The grandest of these are the 
Shawenegan Falls, twenty-four miles from Three Rivers. The river is narrowed between 
two projecting points, and divided by a rocky island into two channels of equal volume. 
The twin streams roll placidly for a while. Suddenly a swift rush begins, and their 
tawny water breaks into tossing foam. The right branch comes down with more direct 
course, dashed into white masses that rise, like fountains, perpendicularly into the air, 
and scatter their glittering beads of spray in wild profusion. The left branch sweeps 
round the island, and far up the narrow channel its stream can be seen, now reflectine 
the banks like a mirror and now tumbling over steps of shelving rock which stand darkly 
out of the variously-broken and lighted water. The play of colour from seal-brown to 
shining white is magnificent, and doubtless suggested the Indian name Shawenegan, or 
needlework, the "divers colours of needlework finely wrought." The left fall curves till 
at right angles to the other, when, meeting, they press upon and past a rocky point 
which stands out full against their united force when the water is low, but is swept by 
the Spring floods. Recoiling from its impetuous leaps against its adamantine barriers, 
the torrent sweeps down another long Incline between walls of rock into a capacious 
bay, whose surface heaves as if with the panting of the water resting after its mad rush. 
Into this bay enters the Shawenegan River, easily ascended by canoe, first through 
elm glades and restful flats, and then by sinuous turns between steep banks covered with 
spruce and birch, till the Little Shawenegan Falls burst on the view in exquisite loveliness. 
In the quieter stretches of the St. Maurice there are many islands. These and the 
banks of the stream are beautifully wooded even up difficult steeps, rising far above the 
water's edge. Every here and there a mountain wall shadows the river, and breaks the 
forest greens with the purple and golden glories of the shrubs that alone can find hold 
upon its rugged face. Deep, gloomy gorges, through which come glimpses of a world 
of hills, mark the entrances of tributary streams. The grandeur and loveliness intensifies 
the mysterious solitude of the wilderness. Such is the country to which nearly three 
hundred years ago the habitant first came. 



AND CHARACTER 



51 



'i*!! 







-nduiM eMiis.^ ■ i> f . i.jipj iii.,IWgKgwt Bkii t.^jji.' u ^■t jT\''-gtft?Aiai 's-.'jL ^ .jslM 



QUEBEC— A GLIMPSE FROM THE OLD CITY WALL. 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTHE. 



53 




Quebec: Historical and Descriptive. 

QUEBEC 



HISTORICAL REVIEW. 



/^"COMPARATIVELY speaking, Canada has not much of an historical past, but all 






that it has from Jacques Cartier's day clusters round this cannon-girt promon- 



tory; not much of a present, but in taking stock of national outfit, Quebec should 
count for something; — indeed, would count with any people. We have a future, and 
with it that great red rock and the red-cross flag that floats over it are inseparably 
bound up. 

The glowing pages of Parkman reveal how much can be made of our past. A son 
of the soil like Le Moine, who has an hereditary right to be animated by the genius 
loci, whose Boswell-like conscientiousness in chronicling everything connected with the 
sacred spot deserves all honourable mention, may exaggerate the importance of the city 
and the country, its past and its present. But truer far his extreme — if extreme it be — than 
Voltaire's or La Pompadour's, and their successors' in our own day. The former thought 
France well rid of " fifteen thousand acres of snow," with an appreciation of the subject 
like unto his estimate of those " /////"v iiiisci-ablcs" about whose literature the world was 
not likelv to trouble itself much longer when it could get the writings of the French 
PhilosopJics instead. The latter heartily agreed with him, for — with Montcalm dead — 
"at last the King will have a chance of sleeping in peace." To us it seems that the 
Dort which for a century and a half was the head-quarters of France in the New World, 
the door by which she entered and which could be closed against all others, the centre 
from which she aimed at the conquest of a virgin continent of altogether unknown extent, 



54 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

and from which her adventurous children set forth — long-robed missionaries leading the 
way, trappers and soldiers following — until they had established themselves at every 
strategic point on the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes, the Ohio, and the Mississippi 
from the Falls of St. Anthony to New Orleans, must always have historical and poetic 
significance. The city and the Province which for the next hundred and twenty years 
have remained French in appearance and French to the core, yet have fought repeatedly 
and are ready to fight again side by side with the red-coats of Great Britain — the best 
proof surely that men can give of loyal allegiance ; — which preserve old Norman and 
Breton customs and traits, and modes of thought and faith that the Revolution has 
submerged in the France of their fore-fathers, fondly nursing the seventeenth century in 
the lap of the nineteenth, must, perhaps beyond any other spot in North America, have 
an interest for the artist and the statesman. 

In the sixteenth century the gallant Francis L made seven attempts to give France 
a share in that wonderful New World which Columbus had disclosed to an unbelievinof 

o 

generation, but like his attempts in other directions they came to nothing. In iS35 he 
put three little vessels under the orders of Jacques Cartier, a skilful navigator, a pious 
and brave man, well worthy of the patent of nobility which he afterwards received, instruct- 
ing him to proceed up the broad water-way he had discovered the year before, until he 
reached the Indies. His duties were to win new realms for Mother Church, as a 
compensation for those she was losing through Lutheran and Calvinistic heresies, and to 
bring back his schooners full of yellow gold and rosy pearls. Thus would his labours 
redound to the glory of God and the good of France. Jacques Cartier crossed the 
ocean and sailed up the magnificent water-way, piously giving to it the name of the saint 
on whose fete-day he had first entered its wide-extended portals. For hundreds of miles 
the river kept its great breadth, more like a sea than a river, till the huge bluff of 
Quebec, seen from afar, appeared to close it abruptly against farther advance. By means 
of this bluff thrust into the stream and the opposite point of Levis stretching out to meet 
it, the view is actually narrowed to three quarters of a mile. Coasting up between the 
north shore and a large beautiful island, he came, on the 14th of September, to the 
mouth of a little tributary, which he called the Ste. Croix, from the fete celebrated on 
that day. Here he cast anchor, for now the time had come to land and make inquiries. 
It needed no prophet to tell that the power which held that dark red bluff would hold the 
key to the country beyond. The natives, with their chief Donnacona, paddled out in 
their birch-bark canoes to gaze upon the strange visitants who had — in great white-winged 
castles — surely swooped down upon them from another world. Cartier treated them kindly. 
They willingly guided him through the primeval forest to their town on the banks of 
the little river, and to the summit of the rock under the shadow of which they had built 
their wigwams. What a landscape for an explorer to gaze upon ! Shore and forest bathed 
in the mellow light of the -September sun for fort)- miles up and down both sides of 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPT/JE 



55 



the glorious stream ! Wealth enough there to satisfy even a king's pilot and captain- 
general. Between the summit and the river far below he may have seen amid the slate 
the glitter of the quartz crystals from which the rock afterwards received its name of 
Cape Diamond. Certainly, on his next voyage he gathered specimens from Cap Rouge. 
But the great attraction must have been the river itself, flowing past with the tribute of 
an unknown continent. Its green waters swept round the feet of the mighty Cape. He 
could cast a stone into the current, for at high tide it rolled right up to the base of the 
rock. The narrow strip of land that now extends between rock and river, crowded with 
the houses of Champlain Street, was not there then. The street has been won from the 
waters and the rock by man, whose greed for land even the boundless spaces of the New 




ARRIVAL OF JACQUES CARTIER AT STADACOXA. 

World cannot satisfy. The ground that sloped down to the Ste. Croix, at the mouth of 
which his vessels lay at anchor, was covered with the finest hard-wood trees — walnuts, oaks, 
elms, ashes, and maples — and among these the bark-cabins of Donnacona's tribe could be 
seen. They called their town Stadacona. To this day no name is more popular with the 
people of Quebec. Any new enterprise that may be projected, from a skating-rink to 
a bank or steamship company, prefers Stadacona to any other name. 

All the way down to Cap Tourmente and round the horizon formed by the fir-clothed 
summits of the Laurentides that enclosed the wide-extended-landscape, an unbroken forest 
ranged. The picture, seen from the Citadel on Cape Diamond to-day, is as fair as the 
eye can desire to see. The sun shines on the glittering roofs of Quebec, and the 
continuous village of clean white houses extending miles down to the white riband of 



56 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

Montmorency, and on cultivated fields running- up into still unbroken wilderness, and 
on the broad river basin enclosing the island, in the forest glades of which wild grapes 
grew so luxuriantly that Cartier enthusiastically called it Isle of Bacchus. But then 
it was in all its virgin glory, and Cartier's soul swelled with the emotions of a discoverer, 
with exultation and boundless hope. Did it not belong to him, did it not almost owe 
its existence to him ? And he was giving it all to God and to France. 

Donnacona told the strangers of a far greater town than his, many days' journey 
up the river. So Cartier placed his two largest vessels within the mouth of the Ste. 
Croix, or the St. Charles, as the RecoUets called it in the next century, and pursued his 
way, overcoming the obstacles of St. Peter's Lake, to Hochelaga. The natives there 
received him as if he were a grod, bringinor flg^ and corn-cakes, and throwing them into 
the boats in such profusion that they seemed to fall through the air like rain or snow. 
Cartier could not help falling in love with the country. The palisaded town nestling under 
the shadow of Mount Royal was surrounded by fertile fields. Autumn showered its 
crimson and gold on the forests, turning the mountain into an immense picture suspended 
high in air, glowing with a wealth of colour that no European painter would dare 
to put on canvas. The river swept on, two miles wide, with a conquering force that 
indicated vast distances beyond, new realms waiting to be discovered. All the way back 
to Quebec the marvellous tints of the forest, and the sweet air and rich sunsets of a 
Canadian autumn accompanied the happy Frenchmen. Had they now turned their prows 
homeward, what pictures of the new country would they have held up to wondering 
listeners ! Nothing could have prevented France from precipitating itself at once upon 
Canada. But the natives, accustomed to the winters, uttered no note of warning to the 
strangers, and therefore, although Cartier rejoined his comrades at Quebec on the iith 
of October, he delayed till the ice-king issued his '' nc exeat." Then he and they soon 
learned that the golden shield had another side. 

To Canadians, winter is simply one of the four seasons. The summer and autumn 
suns ripen all the crops that grow in England or the north of France, and in no tem- 
perate climate is more than one crop a year expected. The frost and snow of winter are 
hailed in their turn, not only as useful friends but as ministers to almost all the amuse- 
ments of the year — the sleighin^, skating-, snow-shoeing, ice-boating, tobogganning- — that 
both sexes and all classes delight in. The frost does much of our subsoil ploughing. 
Snow is not only the best possible mulch, shading and protecting the soil at no cost, but 
its manurial value gives it the name of " the poor man's manure." The ice bridges our 
lakes and rivers. A good snow-fall means roads without the trouble of road-making, 
not only to kirk and market, but through thick woods, over cradle-hills, and awav into 
the lumber regions. An insufficient supply of snow and ice is a national calamit)- : and 
excess can never be so bad as the pall that covers Englanci and Scotlanci half the year 
and makes the people " take their pleasures sadly." 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 57 

But, we are prepared for winter. Jacques Cartier was not, and very heavily Its hand 
fell upon him, as it did subsequently on Champlain when he first wintered at Quebec. 
How heavily, we are in a position to estimate from reading the harrowing descriptions 
of the sufferings endured by the people of London in January 1881, in consequence of 
a snow-fall of some twelve inches. One periodical describes the scene under the title of 
" Moscow in London," and soberly asserts that " to have lived in London on Tuesday, 
the 1 8th January, 1881, and to have survived the experience, is something which any man 
is justified in remembering, and which ought to justify occasional boasting of the fact." 
Another declares that a few more such snow-storms would " render our life and civilization 
impossible;" that in such a case there could be only "an Esquimaux life, not an English 
life;" that "a transformation of the rain into these soft white crystals which at first sight 
seem so much less aggressive than rain is all that is needed to destroy the whole struc- 
ture of our communications, whether in the way of railway, telegraph, or literature;" 
and sadly moralises over the fact that this is sure to come about in time from the pre- 
cession of the equinoxes. Bathos such as this indicates fairly enough the wonderful 
ignorance of the facts and conditions of Canadian life that reigns supreme in educated 
English circles. Canadians fancy that their civilization is English. Those of us who are 
practically acquainted with the conditions of life in England are pretty well agreed that 
where there are points of difference the advantage is on our side. Not one man in a 
thousand in Canada wears a fur coat, or an overcoat of any kind heavier than he would 
have to wear in the mother country. We have ice-houses, but do not live in them. Society 
shows no signs of approximating to the Esquimaux type. We skim over the snow more 
rapidly than a four-in-hand can travel in England when the best highway is at its best. 
A simple contrivance called a snow-plough clears the railway track for the trains, tossing 
the snow to the right and left as triumphantly as a ship tosses the spray from its bows. 
We telegraph and telephone, use cabs and busses, and get our mails — from Halifax to 
Sarnia — with "proofs" and parcels about as regularly in winter as in summer. Incredible 
as all this must sound to those who have shivered under the power of one snow-storm 
and a few degrees of frost, there is a certain humiliation to a Canadian in describing 
what is so entirely a matter of course. He is kept from overmuch wonder by remembering 
that the people of Western Canada, in spite of practical acquaintance with snow-ploughs, 
opposed for years the construction of the Intercolonial Railway because they strenuously 
maintained that it would be blocked up all the winter with ice and snow. 

We are accustomed to our environment. Cartier's men were not ; and reference has 
been made to recent experiences in England to help us to understand what horrors those 
poor fellows from sunny France endured throughout an apparently endless winter, cooped 
up in the coldest spot in all Canada. " From the middle of November to the i8th of April 
the ice and snow shut us in," says their captain. Ice increased upon ice. Snow fell 
upon snow. The great river that no power known to man could fetter, was bound fast. 



58 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 



Everything froze. The breath that came from their mouths, the very blood in their 
veins, seemed to freeze. Night and day their limbs were benumbed. Thick ice formed 
on the sides of their ships, on decks, masts, cordage, on everything to which moisture 
attached itself. Snow wreathed and curled in at every crevice. Every tree had its load. 
A walk in the woods was an impossibility, and there was nowhere else to walk. Confined 
within their narrow domain, and living on salted food, scurvy seized upon the helpless 




TRIUMPH OF THE SNOW-PLOUGH. 



prisoners. What was to be done ? Cartier had recourse to heaven, receiving, however, 
the same minimum of practical answer that was given by Hercules to ^sop's waggoner. 
A modern writer of scrupulous accuracy describes naively the appeal and its bootlessness : 
" When eight were dead and more than fifty in a helpless state, Cartier ordered a solemn 
religious act which was, as it were, the first public exercise of the Catholic religion in Can- 
ada, and the origin of those processions and pilgrimages which have since been made in 
honour of Mary, to claim her intercession with God in great calamities. Seeing that the 
disease had made such frightful ravages he set his crew to prayer, and made them carry 
an image or statue of the Virgin Mary over the snow and ice, and caused it to be placed 
against a tree about an arrow's flight away from the fort. He also commanded that on 
the following Sunday mass should be sung in that place and before that image, and that 
all those who were able to walk, whether well or ill, should go in the procession — 
'singing the seven penitential Psalms of David, with the Litany, praying the Virgin to 
entreat her dear Son to have pity upon us.'" On that day mass was celebrated 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 59 

before the image of Mary, even chanted, Cartier tells us ; apparently the first occasion 
of a high mass in Canada. At the same time Cartier gave another special proof of his 
vivid and tender trust in Mary — promising to make a pilgrimage in her honour to Roque- 
madour, should he be spared to return to France. " Nevertheless, that very day, Philip 
Rougemont, a native of Amboise, twenty years old, died ; and the disease became so 
general that of all who were in the three ships there were not three untouched, and in 
one of the ships there was not one man who could go into the hold to draw water for 
himself or the others." Despair fell upon the poor wretches. They gave up hope of 
ever seeing France again. Cartier alone did not despair, and the dawn followed the 
darkest hour. One of the Indians told him of "the most exquisite remedy that ever 
w^as," a decoction composed of the leaves and bark of the white spruce. He administered 
the medicine without stint, and in eight days the sick were restored to health. And now 
the long cruel winter wore away. The icy fetters relaxed their grip of land and river. 
Under warm April suns the sap rose, thrilling the dead trees into life. Amid the melting 
snow, green grasses and dainty star-like flowers sprang up as freely as in a hot-house. 
Cartier prepared to depart, first taking possession of Canada, however, by planting in 
the fort " a beautiful cross " thirty-five feet high, with the arms of P"" ranee embossed on 
the cross-piece, and this inscription, " Fraiuiscits Primus, Dei gratia, Francoritni rex, 
regnat." Then, treacherously luring Donnacona on board ship, that he might present the 
King of Stadacona to the King of France, he set sail for St. Malo. Nothing came of 
this, the second voyage of Cartier, and little wonder. What advantages did Canada 
offer to induce men to leave home ! What tales could the travellers tell save of black 
forests, deep snow, thick ice, starving Indians, and all-devouring scurvy! But Cartier 
was not discouraged, and six years afterwards Francis resolved to try again. Roberval 
w^as commissioned to found a permanent settlement. He sent Cartier ahead and Cartier 
tried at Cap Rouge, above Quebec, the Indians of Stadacona naturally enough not making 
him welcome. But the experiment did not succeed. The time had not come. Nearly a 
century was to pass away before the true father of New France — the founder of Quebec — 
would appear. 

On the 3d of July, 1608, Samuel de Champlain planted the white flag of France 
on the site of Quebec. The old village of Stadacona had disappeared, and there was no 
one to dispute possession with the new comers. With characteristic promptitude Cham- 
plain set his men to work to cut down trees and saw them into lumber for building, to 
dig drains and ditches, to pull up the wild grape-vines which abounded, to prepare the 
ground for garden seeds, or to attend to the commissariat. Every one had his work to 
do. The winter tried him as it had tried Cartier. The dreaded scurvy attacked his 
followers. Out of twenty-eight only eight survived, and these were disfigured with its 
fell marks. The next year he decided to ally himself with the Algonquins and Hurons 
against the I'ive Nations. It may have been impossible for him to have remained neu- 



6o 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 



tral, though the example of the Dutch at Albany indicates that it was possible. Certainly 
the step plunged the infant colony into a sea of troubles for a century. It took the 
sword and was again and again on the point of perishing by the tomahawk. 

This man Champlain, soldier, sailor, engineer, geographer, naturalist, statesman, with 
the heart and soul of a hero, was, the founder of New France. He had gained distinc- 
tion in the wars of the League ; in the West Indies he first proposed that ship canal 

across the Isthmus of Panama which another 
Frenchman — as unconquerable as he — was 
later on destined to commence; and sub- 
sequently he had spent years exploring and 
attempting settlements around the rugged 
Atlantic shores of Acadie and New England. 
From the day that he planted the lilies of 
France at the foot of Cape Diamond to 
the day of his death, on Christmas, 1635, 
he devoted himself to the infant colony, 
lived for it and kept it alive, in spite of 
enemies at home and abroad, and dis- 
couragements enough to have shaken any 
resolve but that of courage founded upon 
faith. Ri^ht under the beetling cliff, be- 
tween the present Champlain Market and 
the quaint old church of Notre Dame des 
Victoires, Champlain determined to build 
his city. His first work was to prepare 
the ground for garden seeds, and wheat 
and rye. He saw from the first, what he 
never could get any one else in authority 
to see, that the existence of the colony, as 
anything more than a temporary fur-trading 
post, depended on its being able to raise its 
own food. The Compan}' with which he 
was associated could not see this, because they had gone into the enterprise with very 
different motives from those that animated Champlain. When we have no desire to see, 
we put the telescope to our blind eye anci declare that there is nothing to be seen. 
Every creature acts according to its instincts, and to the rule fur-trading companies are 
no exception. Give them a monopoly and instinct becomes consecrated by laws 
human and Divine. The welfare of the Company becomes the supreme law. At the 
beginning of this century the North-West Company thought it right to stamp out in 




CHAMPLAIN. 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTHE 



6i 




\\ 



NOTRE DAME DLS MCIOIRES. 
Site of Original Cit> 



blood and fire the patriotic eiiorts to colonize 
Assiniboia made by a Scottish nobleman, who 
; v^ \ '■ < ' lived half a century before his time. Subse- 

quently the two hundred and sixty-eight share- 
holders of the Hudson's Bay Company felt justified in keeping half a continent as a 
preserve for buffalo and beaver. How could better things be expected in the seven- 
teenth century from the monopolies of De Chastes or De Monts, the merchants of St. 
Malo, Rouen, Dieppe, La Rochelle ; or even from the Company of the One Hundred 
Associates organized by Richelieu ? Trading interests were supreme with one and all. 
Those who clamoured for free trade clamoured only for a share of the monopoly. The 
empire is perpetually at war, and the soldier gets the blame, perhaps the aristocracy, 
should Mr. Bright be the speaker ; but the real culprit is the trader. Our jealousy 
of Russia and our little wars all the world over have trade mterests as their source 



62 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

and inspiration. In the seventeenth century, Canadian trade meant supplies to the 
Indians in exchange for peltries, and money spent on anything else seemed to the 
One Hundred Associates and their servants money thrown away. 

Not so thought Champlain. Fortunately, he was too indispensable a man to 
be recalled, though it was legitimate to oppose, to check, to thwart his projects 
whenever they did not promise direct returns to the Company. Champlain aimed 
at founding an empire, and every great empire must be based on farming. Therefore 
when, in 1617, he brought the erstwhile apothecary, Louis Hebert, to Quebec, he 
did more for the colony than when he brought the Rdcollets and Jesuits to it. 
And let this be said with no depreciation of the labours of the gray robes and black 
robes. Hebert was the first who gave himself up to the task of cultivating the 
soil in New France, and the first head of a family resident in the country who lived 
on what he cultivated. His son-in-law Couillard walked in the same good path, the 
path first trodden by "the grand old gardener and his wife." No matter how soldiers, 
sailors, fur-traders and priests might come and go, the farmer's children held on to 
the land, and their descendants hold it still. They increased and multiplied so mightily 
that there are few French families of any antiquity in Canada who cannot trace 
their genealogy by some link back to that of Louis Hebert. Hebert and Couillard 
Streets, streets quainter and more expressive of the seventeenth century than any to be 
seen now in St. Malo, commemorate their names. One of their descendants informed 
the writer that those streets run where the first furrows were ploughed in Canada, prob- 
ably in the same way that some of the streets in Boston are said to meander along the 
paths made by the cows of the first inhabitants. Had others followed Hebert's example 
the colony would not have been so long suspended between life and death, and Cham- 
plain could have held out against the Huguenot Kerkts in 1629. But the Company, far 
from doing anything to encourage the few tillers of the ground, did everything to dis- 
courage them. All grain raised had to be sold at a price fixed by the Company, and 
the Company alone had the power of buying. Of course the Heberts and Couillards 
ought to have been grateful that there was a Company to buy, for what could farmers 
do without a market ? 

Of Champlain's labours it is unnecessary to speak at length. Twenty times he crossed 
the Atlantic to fight for his colony, though it was a greater undertaking to cross the 
Atlantic then than to go round the world now. He may be called the founder of Mon- 
treal as well as of Quebec. First of Europeans he sailed up the Richelieu, giving to the 
beautiful river the name of the Company's great patron. He discovered Lake Cham- 
plain. He first ascended the Ottawa, crossed to Lake Nipissing, and came down by the 
valley of the Trent to what he called "the fresh water sea" of Ontario. He secured 
the alliance of all the Indian tribes — the confederacy of the Five Nations excepted — by 
treaties which lasted as long as the white flag floated over the castle of St. Louis, and 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 



63 



which laid the foundation of the friendship that has existed between every Canadian 
government and the old sons and lords of the soil. D'Arcy McGee, in one of those 
addresses that made learned and unlearned feel what is the potency and omnipotency 
•of man's word on the souls of men, thus sketched his moral qualities and amazing- 
versatility : — " He was brave almost 
to rashness. He would cast himself 
with a single European follower in 
the midst of savage enemies, and 
more than once his life was endan- 
gered by the excess of his confidence 
and his courage. He was eminently 
■social in his habits — witness his or- 
der of Ic boil temps, in which every 
man of his associates was for one 
day host to all his comrades. He 
was sanguine, as became an adven- 
turer ; and self-denying, as became a 





LITTLE CHAMPLAIN STREET, 
P^rom head of Break-neck Stairs. 



MOUNTAIN HILL, 
From top of Break-rerl Stairs. 



hero. . . He touched the 
extremes of human experi- 
ence among diverse characters and nations. 
At one time he sketched plans of civilized 
aggrandizement for Henry IV. and Richelieu; 
at another, he planned schemes of wild war- 
fare with Hurori chiefs and Algonquin braves. 
He united in a most rare degree the faculties 
of action and reflection, and like all highly- 
reflective minds, his thoughts, long cherished 
in secret, ran often into the mould of max- 
ims, some of which would form the fittest 
possible inscriptions to be engraven upon 
his monument. When the merchants ot 



64 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 



Quebec grumbled at the cost of fortifying that place, he said, ' It is best not to obey 
the passions of men ; they are but for a season ; it is our duty to regard the future.' 
With all his love of good-fellowship, he was, what seems to some inconsistent with it, sin- 
/ cerely and enthusiastically religious. Among his maxims are these two — that ' the salvation 
of one soul is of more value than the conquest of an empire ; ' and that ' kings ought 
not to think of extending their authority over idolatrous nations, except for the purpose of 
subjecting them to Jesus Christ.'" The one mistake made by Champlain has already been 
referred to. He attacked the Iroquois, whereas he should have conciliated them at any 
cost or remained neutral in all Indian wars. His mistake was not so much intellectual 
as moral. It was a crime and — pace Talleyrand — worse than a blunder. But it is not 
pleasant to refer to the errors of such a man. Well may Quebec commemorate his name 
and virtues. Let us not forget, when we walk along the quaint, narrow, crowded street 
that still bears his name, or clamber " Break-neck Stairs " from Little Champlain Street 

to reach Durham Terrace, where he built the 
Chateau of St. Louis and doubtless often gazed, 
with hope and pride in his eyes, on a scene 
like to which there are few on this earth, how 
much Canada owes to him ! Well for those 
who follow him where all may follow — in un- 
selfishness of purpose, in unflinching valour, and 
in continence of life. No monument points out 
his last resting-place, for, strange to say, " of all 
French governors interred within the enceinte, 
he is the only one of whose place of sepulture 
we are ignorant."* The registers of Quebec 
were destroyed in the great conflagration of 
1640. Thus it happens that we have not the 
account of his burial. W. Dionne shows that in 
all probability the remains were first deposited 
in the chapel of Notre Dame de la Recouvrance ; then in a vault of masonry in the 
chapel built by his successor in the Governorship, whence they were removed by the 
authorities to the Basilica. Champlain needs no monument, least of all in Quebec. 
The city is his monument. 

Most religious Quebec was from the first under the influence of Champlain ; most 
religious is it in appearance to this day. There are churches enough for a city with five 
times the present population. Ecclesiastical establishments of one kind or another occupy 
the lion's share of the space within the walls. At every corner the soutaned ecclesiastic 
meets you, moving along quietly, with the confidence of one who knows that his foot is 

* " iLtudes Hisloriciues," par M. DiONNE. 




PRESCOTT GATE. 

Now removed, guarded the approach to the Upper Town by 
Mountain Hill. 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIJE 65 

on his native heath. It was the same with the cities of France in the seventeenth cen- 
tury : but it is not so now. Things have changed there. The Revolution made the Old 
World New. In Quebec the New World clings to the garments of the Old. Champlain 
first induced the Recollet friars to come to his aid. The Jesuits, then at the height of 
their power in France, followed. The Company disliked missionaries almost as much as 
it disliked farmers. "They tolerated the poor Recollets," says Ferland, "but they dreaded 
the coming of the Jesuits, who had powerful protectors at Court and who could through 
them carry their complaints to the foot of the throne." Consequently, when the first 
detachment of Jesuits arrived they found every door shut against them, and if the Re- 
collets had not offered them hospitality they would have been obliged to return to 
France. 

Magnificent missionaries those first Jesuits were ; more devoted men never lived. The 
names especially of Charles Lallemant and Jean de Brebeuf are still sacred to thousands 
of French-Canadian Roman Catholics. Two things the Jesuits felt the colony must have 
— a school for the instruction of girls, and a hospital for the sick. These institutions 
they desired for the sake of the colonists, most of whom were poor, but still more for 
the sake of the Indians. The Fathers had left France to convert the Indians; on that 
work their hearts were set, and they gave themselves to it with a wisdom as great as 
their self-sacrifice. Protestant missionaries, as a class, are only now learning to imitate 
their methods of procedure, especially with regard to the establishment of hospitals and 
the acquisition of a perfect knowledge of the language and modes of thought of the 
people whose conversion they seek. What Livingstone did in South Africa when he cut 
himself loose from all the other missionaries who kept within reach of the comforts of 
the colony, and plunged into the thick of the native tribes beyond ; what the Canadian 
missionary Mackay did eight years ago in P^ormosa with such brilliant success, the Jesuits 
always did. Their first task was to master the language. Grammatical knowledge, 
they knew, was not enough. They lived in the wigwams of the wretched, filthy no- 
mads, travelled with them, carrying the heaviest loads, and submitted to cold and heat, 
to privations, and the thousand abominations of savage life, without a murmur. They 
cared for the sick, and, expecting little aid from the old, sought to educate the young. 
Charlevoix tells us how they succeeded in establishing in Quebec both the Hotel Dieu and 
the Ursuline Convent. Madame la Duchesse D'Aiguillon, the niece of Richelieu, undertook 
to found the first. To carry out her pious project she applied to the hospital nuns of Dieppe. 
" These holy women accepted with joy the opportunity of sacrificing all that they counted 
dear in the world for the service of the sick poor of Canada; all offered themselves, 
all asked with tears to be admitted to share in the work." About the same time Madame 
de la Peltrie, a widow of a good family, resolved to found the Convent of the Ursu- 
lines. She devoted all her fortune to give a Christian education to the girls of the 
colonists and of the Indians, and followed up these sacrifices by devoting herself to the 



66 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 




I'iiiii. 



IN THI£ GARDENS OF THE URSULINE CONVENT. 



work. Young, rich, beauti- 
ful, she renounced all ad- 
vantages and prospects for 
what then must have been 
a worse than Siberian exile. 
At Tours, among the Ursu- 
line nuns, she found Marie 
de rincarnation, who be- 
came the first Mother Su- 
perior of the new convent, 
and " Marie de St. Joseph, 
whom New France regards 
as one of its tutelary 
angels." On the fourth of 
May, 1639, she embarked 
with three hospital nuns, 
three Ursulines, and Pere 
\'imond, and on the first 
of July they arrived at 
Quebec. The length of the 
voyage, not to refer to its 
discomforts, reminds us of 
the difference between cross- 
ing the Atlantic then and 
now. All Quebec rejoiced 
on their arrival. Work 
ceased, the shops were shut, 
and the town was cu fete. 
" The Governor received 
the heroines on the river's 
bank at the head of his 
troops with a discharge of 
cannon, and after the first 
compliments he led them, 
amid the acclamations of 
the people, to c'.urch, where 
Te Deums were chanted 
as a thanksgiving." PVom 
that day till her death. 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIJE 67 

thirty-two years after, Madame de la Peltrie gave herself up to the work she had 
undertaken. Mere Marie de I'lncarnation, whose fervent piety and spirituality of 
character gained her the name of the Ste. Theresa of New France, died a year after her. 
These two women lived in an atmosphere so different from ours, that it is extremely 
ditificult for us to judge them. Both have been condemned, the one as an unnatural 
mother, the other as a disobedient daughter. They believed they were sacrificing the 
claims of nature to the superior claim of their Saviour. Certainly, their works have 
followed them. The great Ursuline Convent of Quebec, to which hundreds of girls are 
sent to be educated from all parts of the continent, is their monument. The buildings 
have been repeatedly destroyed by fire, but have always been replaced by others more 
expensive and substantial, the community apparently delighting to testify its sense of the 
value of the work done by the devoted Sisters. Within their spacious grounds, in the 
heart of the city, are various buildings, one for boarders, among whom to this day are 
daughters of Indian chiefs; another for day scholars; a normal school; a school for the 
poor; a chapel and choir, and nuns' quarters; with gardens, play and pleasure grounds 
for the youthful inmates, and summer and winter promenades — all eloquent with the 
memories of the pious founder, who had not disdained to toil in the garden with her 
own hand. To each generation of susceptible minds the lives of Mme de la Peltrie and 
Mere Marie are held up for imitation, and no honour is grudged to their memories. 

Not only religious, but charitable and moral, was Quebec under the administration 
of Champlain and his successors. Ferland cites the registers of Notre Dame of Quebec 
to show that out of 664 children baptised between 1621 and 1661, only one was illegiti- 
mate. Still, the colony did not prot^^r ; again and again it was on the point of extinc- 
tion at the hands of the Iroquois. The Company sat upon its agricultural and indus- 
trial development like the old man of the sea. In 1663 the population of New France 
consisted of only two thousand souls, scattered along a thin broken line from Tadoussac 
to Montreal. Of this small total Quebec claimed 800. At any moment a rude breath 
would have killed the colony, but now favouring gales came from Old France. Louis 
XIV. determined to suppress the Company, and bring Canada under his own direct 
authority. He constituted by direct appointment a Sovereign Council to sit in Quebec, 
immediately responsible to himself, the principal functionaries to be the Governor-Gene- 
ral, the Royal Intendant, and the Bishop, each to be a spy on the other two. The 
Governor-General believed himself to be the head of the colony ; he formed the apex 
•of the governmental pyramid. But the Intendant, who was Chief of Justice, Police, 
Finance, and Marine, understood that the King looked to him, and that the colony was 
in his hands, to be made or marred. The Bishop, again, knew that both Governor- 
General and Intendant would have to dance according as he pulled the wires at Court. 
Talon, the first Intendant who arrived in Quebec, was the ablest who ever held the 
position. Talon was a statesman, a pupil of Colbert, and in some respects in advance 



68 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

of his great master. He urged immigration as a means of ensuring to France the pos- 
session of the New World. Colbert, with the wisdom of the seventeenth century, replied 
that it would not be prudent to depopulate the kingdom. " Secure New York," Talon 
urged, "and the great game will be gained for France." When that step was not taken 
he projected a road to Acadie, — which it was left to our day, by the construction of the 
Intercolonial Railway, to carry out, and thus to give to Canada indispensable winter 
ports. He pushed discovery in every direction, selecting his men with marvellous sagacity. 
Under his direction, St. Simon and La Couture reached Hudson's Bay by the valley of 
the Saguenay ; Pere Druilletes, the Atlantic seaboard by the Chaudiere and the Ken- 
nebec ; Perrot, the end of Lake Michigan and the entrance of Superior; Joliet and Pere 
Marquette, the father of waters down to the Arkansas. In Talon's day Quebec rose 
from being a fur-trading post into commercial importance. He believed in the country 
he had been sent to govern, and was of opinion that a wise national policy demanded 
the encouragement in it of every possible variety of industrial development. His mantle 
fell on none of his successors. Instead of fostering the industries Talon had inaugurated 
and defending the commercial liberty which he had obtained, they stifled industry and 
trade under restrictions and monopolies. Not that the Intendants were wholly to 
blame ; they were sent out on purpose to govern the colony, not with a view to its own 
benefit, but with a view to the benefit of Old France. Neither the King nor his minister 
could conceive that Canada would benefit the mother country, only as its material and 
industrial development increased. Talon had twelve successors. Of all these, the last. 
Bigot, was the worst. To Bigot more than to any other man France owes the loss of 
the New World. He impoverished the people, nominally for the King's service, really 
to enrich himself. That the poor, plundered, cheated habitans were willing to fight as 
they did for the King, and that Montcalm was able to accomplish anything with the 
commissariat Bigot provided, are the wonderful facts of the Conquest of 1759. The In- 
tendant's house was by far the most expensive and most splendidly furnished in Quebec. 
It was emphatically "The Palace," and the gate nearest it was called the Palace Gate. 
It stood outside the walls, — its principal entrance opposite the cliff on the present line of 
St. Valier Street, "under the Arsenal;" while its spacious grounds, beautifully laid out in 
walks and gardens, extending over several acres, sloped down to the river St. Charles.* 
It is described in 1698 as having a frontage of 480 feet, consisting of the Royal store- 
house and other buildings, in addition to the Palace itself, so that it appeared a little 
town. In 1 713 it was destroyed by fire, but immediately rebuilt in accordance with the 
French domestic style of the period, two storeys and a basement, as shown by sketches 
made by one of the officers of the fleet that accompanied Wolfe's expedition. Here, no 
matter what might be the poverty of the people, the Intendant surrounded himself with 
splendour. In Bigot's time every form of dissipation reigned in the Palace ; while the 

* Summary of the " History of the Intendant's Palace," by Ch.\rlf.S Walkem, Militia Department. 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 



69 



liabitaiit, who had left his farm to fiyht for the King, could hardly get a ration of 
black bread for himself, or a sou to send to his starving wife and little ones at 
home. Our illustration shows all that is left of the magnificent Palace. It arose out 




of a brewer\ started by Talon as a part of 

his national policy, and it has returned 

to be part of a brewery, and for all the luxury and bravery there is nothing now 

to show, and the cheating and the gambling are, let us hope, receiving their just 

recompense of reward. 

The Governor's Chateau is not. The Intendant's Palace was destroyed more 
than a century ago, but the Bishop's house, seminary and cathedral still remain, and the 
bishop, or archbishop as he is now styled, is yet the most potent personage in Quebec. 
The early bishop, Laval, is one of the historic figures of New France. Seen by 
Ultramontane eyes, this first Canadian bishop stands on the highest pinnacle of human 
excellence and greatness ; the only mystery being that the Church has not yet canon- 
ized him. He did everything "for the glory of God," the expression meaning to 
him, as to ecclesiastical fanatics of every creed, the glory of the Church, and in some 
measure the glory of himself. He cared nothing for money or any form of vulgar 



70 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

'•reatness. His ambition was loftier. He would rule the souls of men, and woe to 
liie man in his widely-extended diocese, be he Governor-General, statesman, merchant, priest 
cr savage, who ventured to call his soul his own. True, none seemed more ready than 
Laval to o-ive support to the State. The Church was supreme only in things spiritual. 
Kings, too, ruled by Divine right. But then the Church was to instruct the King, or the 
Kino-'s representative, as to what matters were civil and what spiritual. For instance, 
when the bishop decided that the introduction of brandy into the colony was injurious 
to religion, the importing or sale of brandy became a spiritual matter. In that 
case the Governor, on pain of excommunication, must punish the vendor of brandy 
with the pillory, and, if need be, with death. Evidently, General Neal Dow follows, 
longo tntci-vallo, our first Canadian bishop. Always fighting, Laval could say as 
honestly as the King himself, " It seems to me I am the only person who is always 
rio-ht." The constitution of the Church of New France took its jaermanent form from 
him. His clergy were his soldiers. When he said "March," they marched. He 
established a lesser seminary where they were educated as boys, and the great 
seminary where they were trained as priests. He assigned their fields of labour, 
changed them as he saw meet, and provided a home whither, when infirm or 
exhausted with labour or old age, they might resort, either to recruit or die in 
peace. Their directory in life and death was every word that i^roceeded out of 
the mouth of the bishop. Other directory they desired not. To the seminary a 
University under Royal Charter was attached in 1852, and to that University Laval's 
name has been deservedly given. The Charter, which sets forth that the seminary 
has existed for two hundred years, constitutes the archbishop visitor, and the superior 
and directors of the seminary a body corporate, with all the privileges of a Univer- 
sity, and full power to make all statutes and appoint all professors. "Laval University 
has nothing more to ask from the civil and religious authorities to complete its 
constitution," is the announcement of its board of government. Its Royal Charter 
assimilates it to the most favoured University of the United Kingdom, while the 
sovereign pontifT, Pius the Ninth, magnificently crowned the edifice by according to 
it in 1876 solemn canonical honours by the Bull "inter varias soUcitiidincs." 

From the opposite shore of Levis, Laval University, standing in the most 
commanding position in the upper town, towering to a height of five storeys, is the 
most conspicuous building in Quebec. The American tourist takes it for the chief 
hotel of the place, and congratulates himself that a child of the monster hotels he 
loves has found its way north of the line. When he finds that it is only a University, 
he visits it as a matter of course, looks at the library and museum, remarking casually 
on their inferiority to those in any one of the four hundred and odd Universities in 
the United States, and comes out in a few minutes, likely enough without having 
gone to the roof to see one of the most glorious panoramas in the New World. Here 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIJE 



71 




AT THE GATE OF LAVAL UMVERSl'l \'. 



he is, at the o-ate. Blessinos on his serene, kindly sense of superiority to all men or 
things in heaven or on earth ! He has seen nothing- that can compare for a 
mornent with Slickville. Englishmen, Frenchmen, Sisters, students, Canadian soldiers, 
civilians, are round about, but he alone is monarch of all he surveys. A strange 
sight arrests his attention. Young Canada, cap in hand, cap actually off his head, and 



72 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

head reverently bowed while a priest speaks a kind word or perhaps gives his blessing ! 
This is something new, and he is too grood an observer not to make a note of it, 
congratulating himself at the same time that he is willing to make allowances. Is 
it not his " specialty," as John Ruskin hath it, "his one gift to the race — to show men 
how not to worship?", 

A Canadian may be pardoned for calling attention to the significance of the 
grant, by the British Government, of a Royal Charter to Laval University. The 
trust in an hierarchy that the people trust, illustrates the fundamental principle of its 
policy in Canada. No matter what the question, so long as it is not inconsistent with 
the Queen's supremacy, Canada is governed in accordance with the constitutionally 
expressed wishes of the people of each Province. The success which has attended the 
frank acceptance of this principle suggests the only possible solution of that Irish 
Question which still baffles statesmen. What has worked like a charm here ought to 
work in another part of the Empire. Here, we have a million of people opposed in 
race, religion, character and historical associations to the majority of Canadians, a 
people whose forefathers fought England for a century and a half on the soil on 
which the children are now living ; — a Celtic people, massed together in one Province, 
a people proud, sensitive, submissive to their priests, and not very well educated ; — this 
people half a century ago badgered every Governor that Britain sent out, stopped the 
supplies, embarrassed authority, and at last broke out into open rebellion. Now, they 
are peaceable, contented, prosperous. They co-operate for all purposes of good govern- 
ment with the other Provinces, do no intentional injustice to the Protestant minority of 
their own Province, and are so heartily loyal to the central authority that it has 
become almost an unwritten law to select the Minister of War from their representatives 
in Parliament. Let him who runs read, and read, too, the answer of D'Arcy McGee to 
those who wondered that the young rebel in Ireland should be the mature ardent 
admirer of British government in Canada : " If in my day Ireland had been governed 
as Canada is now governed, I would have been as sound a constitutionalist as is to 
be found in Ireland." 

The best thing Louis XIV. did for Quebec was the sending to it of the regi- 
ment of Carignan-Salieres. A few companies of veterans, led by Canadian blue-coats, 
penetrated by the Richelieu to the lairs of the Iroquois, and struck such terror 
into them that the colony was thenceforth allowed to breathe and to grow. Still 
better, when the regiment was disbanded, most of the soldiers remained, and many 
of the picturesque towns and villages that have grown up along the Richelieu 
and St. Lawrence owe their names to the officers, to whom larcre seienorial rights 
were given by the King on condition of their settling in the colony. From these 
veterans sprang a race as adventurous and intrepid as ever lived. Their e.xploits as 
salt-water and fresh-water sailors, as courcurs dc bois, discoverers, soldiers regular and 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTHE n 

irregular, fill many a page of old Canadian history. Whether with the gallant brothers 
Le Moyne, defending Quebec against Sir William Phipps, or striking terror into New 
York and New England by swift forays such as Hertel de Rouville led ; or with 
Du Lhut and Durantaye, breaking loose from the strait -jacket in which Royal In- 
tendants imprisoned the colony, and abandoning themselves to the savage freedom of 
western fort and forest life ; or under D'Iberville, most celebrated of the seven sons 
of Charles Le Moyne, sweeping the English flag from Newfoundland and Hudson's 
Bay or colonizing Louisiana; or with Jumonville and his brother on the Ohio, de- 
feating Washington and Braddock ; or vainly conquering at Fort William Henry and 
Carillon and Montmorency and Ste. Foye, — the picture is always full of life and colour. 
Whatever else may fail, valour and devotion to the King never fail. We find the 
dare-devil courage joined with the gaiety of heart and ready accommodation to cir- 
cumstances that make the Frenchman popular, alike with friendly savages and civil- 
ized foemen, in all parts of the world. Canadian experiences developed in the old 
French stock new qualities, good and bad, the good predominating. Versed in all 
kinds of woodcraft, handling an axe as a modern tourist handles a tooth-pick, managing 
a canoe like Indians, inured to the climate, supplying themselves on the march with 
food from forest or river and cooking it in the most approved style, fearing neither 
frost nor ice, depth of snow nor depth of muskeg, independent of roads, — such men 
needed only a leader who understood them to go anywhere into the untrodden 
depths of the New World, and to do anything that man could do. Such a leader 
they found in Louis de Buade, Compte de Palleau et de Frontenac. Buade Street 
recalls his name, and there is little else in the old city that does, though Quebec 
loved him well in his day. Talon had done all that man could do to develop the 
infant colony by means of a national policy that stimulated industry, and an immi- 
gration policy, wise and vigorous enough, as far as his appeals to the King and 
Colbert went, for the nineteenth century. Ano her man was needed to enable the 
thin line of colonists to make head against the formidable Iroquois, backed as they 
were by the Dutch and English of New York, and against the citizen sailors and 
soldiers of New England; to direct their enercries to the Great West; to make them 
feel that the power of France was with them, no matter how far they wandered 
from Quebec; and to inspire them with the thought that the whole unbounded con- 
tinent was theirs by right. Such a man was Frontenac. Of his quarrels with intendants 
and clergy it would be a waste of time to speak. To defend him from the accusations 
made against his honour is unnecessary. How could quarrels be avoided where three 
officials lived, each having some reason to believe, in accordance with the profound 
state-craft of the Old Regime, that he was the supreme ruler ! Frontenac was titular 
head, and he would be the real head. Neither bishops nor intendants should rule 
in his day, and they did not, and could not. They could worry him and even secure 



74 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 



his recall, but they could not govern the colony when they got the chance. Frontenac 

had to be sent back to his 

'swii^n'ifigaMaiBiiMiiiaiMiaaiiS ffigM 

post, and the universal joy 

with which the people re- 
ceived him showed that, as 
usual, the people overlook 
irritabilities and shortcom- 
ings, and discern the man. 
" He would have been a 
great prince if heaven had 
placed him on a throne," 
says Charlevoix. The good 
Jesuit forgets that Fron- 
tenac was the only man 
who sought to ascertain by 
ancient legitimate methods 
the views of all classes of 
the people, and that as 
Quebec was shut out from 
communication with the 
throne for half the 
year, the Governor had 
to act as a king or to 
see the country without 
a head. Fronte- 
nac understood 
the crreat o"ame 
was being 



that 

played for the 
sovereignty of 
this continent. 
He had almost 
boundless influ- 
ence over the 
Indians, because 
he appreciated 
them, and in his 




BUADE STREET. 
Named after Frontenac 

heart of hearts was one 

of themselves. No one understood so well 

what Indians were fitted to do in the wild warfare 

that the situation demanded. At the time of his 

death all signs betokened that France was to dominate the New World. The treaties 

Champiain had made with the Indians held good. The tribes farther west had allied 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIJ'E 



75 



^ 



'^\ 



r\ 



>' '> 



\ 




\^ 



V 









themsehes with the French. At every strategic point the 
white flao with the /a/rs dc lis floated over a rude fort. 
The St Lawrence was Hnked by Hnes of mlHtary communi- 
cation with the Gulf of Mexico. Quebec had proud- 
1) built the church of Notre Dame de la Victoire 
to commemorate the defeat of New England, and the 
power of the terrible Iroquois had been so 
broken that they could no longer threaten 
" ^ the existence of the colony. 

In spite of Frontenac, it was not to 



^ 



^il4vi\ 







'm,-i4^l '«s 











be as the signs indicated. In spite 
of Montcalm's victories it was not to 
be. History was again to prove that 
in a contest between peace and war, 
between steady industry and dashing 
forays, between the farmer and the 
soldier, the former is sure to 
win in the long run The 






^^^3:^^ 



HEIGHTS OF ABRAHAM. 



corruptions of the Court of France had to do with 
the issue remotely. Bigot and his vile aitoiirao^i had 
to do with it immediately. But by no possibi]it\ 
could sixty thousand poor, uneducated Canadians continue ti 







K 



V 



/^(^ 



^.%' 









resist the ever-increasing weight of twenty or thirty times their U 

number of thrifty, intelligent neighbours. Wolfe might have 
been defeated on the Plains of Abraham. When we think of Mont- 
calm's military genius, the victories gained by him against heavy odds in 
previous campaigns, and his defeat of Wolfe's grenadiers a few weeks 
before the final struggle, our wonder indeed is that the British were 
not hurled over those steep cliffs they had so painfully clambered up on that memorable 



>v' 



76 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

early September morning. Scotchmen attributed the result to those men " in the garb of 
old Gaul, with the fire of old Rome," whom the British Government had been 
wise enough to organize into regiments out of the clans who a few years before 
had marched victoriously from their own northern glens into the heart of Eng- 
land. And Wolfe, had he lived, would probably have agreed with them. For, when 
he told the grenadiers, after their defeat, that, if they had supposed that they 
alone could beat the French army, he hoped they had found out their mistake, his 
tone indicated a boundless confidence in his Highlanders more flattering than any 
eulogy. But the most crowning victory for Montcalm would only have delayed the 
inevitable. Other armies were converging towards Quebec. And behind the armies 
was a population, already counting itself by millions, determined on the destruction 
of that nest on the northern rock whence hornets were ever issuing to sting and 
madden. No one understood the actual state of affairs better than Montcalm. He 
knew that France had practically abandoned Canada, and left him to make the best 
fight he could for his own honour against hopeless odds. Hence that precipitate attack 
on Wolfe, for which he has been censured. He knew that every hour's delay would 
increase Wolfe's relative strength. Hence, too, that abandonment of the whole cause, 
after the battle, for which he has been censured still more severely. " I will neither 
give orders nor interfere any further," he exclaimed with emotion, when urged to issue 
instructions about the defer ce of the city. He had done all that man could do. 
He had sealed his loyalty with his blood. And now, seeing that the stars in their 
courses were fighting against the cause he had so gallantly upheld, and that the issue 
was pre-determined, he would take no more responsibility. He knew, too, that his 
best avengers would be found in the ranks of his enemies ; that Britain in crushing- 
French power in its seat of strength in America, was overreaching herself, and pre- 
paring a loss out of all proportion to the present gain. He appreciated the " Bostonnais :" 
predicting that they would never submit to an island thousands of miles away when 
they controlled the continent, whereas they would have remained loyal if a hostile 
power held the St. Lawrence and the Lakes. Was he not right ? And had not Pitt 
and Wolfe, then, as much to do with bringing about the separation of the Thirteen 
States from the mother country, as Franklin and Washington ? 

The story of the campaigns of 1 759-60 need not be told here. Every incident 
is familiar to the traditional school-boy. Every tourist is sure to visit Wolfe's Cove 
for himself, and to ascend the heights called after the old Scottish pilot " Abraham" 
Martin. No sign of war now. Rafts of timber in the Cove, and ships from all 
waters to carry it away, instead of boats crowded with rugged Highlanders silent as 
the grave. No trouble apprehended by any one, e.xcept from stevedores whose right it 
is to dictate terms to commerce and occasionally to throw the city into a state of siege. 
No precipice now, the face of which must be scaled on hands ami knees. A pleasant 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 



II 



road leads to the Plains, and you and your party can drive leisurely up. There, 
before you, across the common, is the modest column that tells where Wolfe " died 
victorious." Between it and the Citadel are Martello towers, digging near one of 
which some years ago, skeletons were found, and military buttons and buckles, the 
dreary pledges, held by battle-fields, of human valour and devotion and all the pomp 
and circumstance of war. You must drive into the city to see the monument that 
commemorates the joint glory of Montcalm and Wolfe ; and out again, to see the 
third monument, sacred to the memory of the braves who, under the skilful De 
Levis, uselessly avenged at Ste. Foye the defeat of Montcalm. 

The red-cross flag floated over the Chateau of St. Louis, and New England g^ave 




OVERLOOKING ST. CHARLES VALLEY. 

thanks. Fifteen years passed away, 
and Montcalm's prediction was fulfilled. 
The "Bostonnais" were in revolt. Wise with the teaching of more than a century, 
they at the outset determined to secure the St. Lawrence ; and they would have 
succeeded, had it not been for the same strong rock of Quebec which had foiled 
them so often in the old colonial days. Arnold advanced through the roadless wilderness 
of Maine, defying swamps, forests, and innumerable privations as hardily as ever did 
the old Canadian noblesse when they raided the villages and forts of Maine. Montgomery 
swept the British garrisons from the Richelieu and Montreal, and joined Arnold at 
the appointed rendezvous. Their success must have astonished themselves. The 
explanation is that the colony had no garrisons to speak of, and that the French 
Canadians felt that the quarrel was none of their making. In a month all Canada 
— Quebec excepted — had been gained for Congress ; and there was no garrison in Quebec 
capable of resisting the combined forces that Arnold and Montgomery led. But Guy 
Carleton reached Quebec, and another proof was given to the world that one man ma)' 
be equal to a garrison. In a few days he had breathed his own spirit into the militia, 



78 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 







^_^ 

^^-, 



OVERLOOKING NORTH CHANNEL, 
From Grand Battery and Laval University. 

native Canadians as well as British born. 

The invaders established themselves in 

the Intendant's Palace and other houses 

near the walls, and after a month's siege made a 

resolute attempt to take the city by storm. Whatever 

may have been the result of a more precipitate attack, 

the delay unquestionably afforded greater advantages 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIIE 



70 



to the besieged than to the besiegers. Mont- 
gomery set out from Wolfe's Cove and crept 
along the narrow pathway now known as Cham- 
plain Street. Arnold advanced from the oppo- 
site direction. His intention was to force his 
way round by what is now St. Roch's suburbs, 
below the ramparts, and under the cliff at 
present crowned by Laval University and the 
Grand Battery, and to meet Montgomery at 
the foot of Mountain Hill, when their united 
forces would endeavour to gain the upper 
town. Not the first fraction of the plan, 
on the one side or the other, succeeded. 
Arnold's men were surrounded and captured. 
Montgomery, marching 
in the gray dawn through 
a heavy snow - storm, 
came upon a battery -::; ■ 
that blocked up the ' '' 




n a r r o w pathway. 
He rushed forward, 
hoping to take it by 
surprise ; but the 
gunners were on the 
alert, and the first 
discharge swept him 
and the head of his 
column, maimed or 
dead, into the deep 
white sno\\ oi over 
th(. bank 1 he snow 
contnuud to fall, 
([UK tl\ ( Hacmu all 




WOLFE'S 
MONUMENT. 



MARTELLO TOWER, 
On the Plains of Abraham. 



signs of the conflict. A few hours after, Montgomery's body was found lying 
in the snow, stark and stiff, and was carried to a small log-house in St. Louis 
Street. No more gallant soldier fell in the Revolutionary War. Nothing now could 
be done even by the daring Arnold, though he lingered till spring. One whiff of 
grape-shot had decided that Congress must needs leave its ancient foe to itself. 



8o 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 



to work out its destinies in connection with that British Empire which it had so 
long defied. 

That decision has ruled events ever since. From that day to this, constitutional 
questions have occupied the attention of the Canadian people, instead of military ambition 
and the game of war. No such questions could emerge under the Old Regime. Consti- 
tutional development was then impossible. The fundamental principle of the Old Regime 
was that the spiritual and the civil powers ruled all subjects by Divine right, and therefore 

that the first and last duty of govern-- 
ment was to train the people under a 
long line of absolute functionaries, re 
ligious and civil, to obey the powers 
that be. A demand for representative 
institutions could hardly be expected 
to come in those circumstances from 
the French Canadians. Their ambition 
extended no further than the hope that 
they might be governed economically, 
on a hard-money basis, and according 
to their own traditions. Their relation 
to the land, their disposition, habits 
and training, their unquenchable Celtic 
love for their language, laws and re- 
ligion, made them eminently conserva- 
tive. From the day the British flag floated over their heads, they came into the 
possession of rights and privileges of which their fathers had never dreamed. The 
contrast between their condition under Great Britain with what it had been under 
France, could not be described more forcibly than it was by Papineau in the year 
1820 on the hustings of Montreal: — "Then — under France — trade was monopolised by 
privileged Companies, public and private property often pillaged, and the inhabitants 
dragged year after year from their homes and families to shed their blood, from the 
shores of the Great Lakes, from the banks of the Mississippi and the Ohio, to Nova 
Scotia, Newfoundland, and Hudson's Bay. Now, religious toleration, trial by jury, the 
act of Habeas Corpus, afford legal and equal security to all, and we need submit to no 
other laws but those of our own makine. All these advantacres have become our 
birthright, and shall, I hope, be the lasting inheritance of our posterity." But a disturbing 
element had gradually worked its way among the habit a us, in the form of merchants, 
officials, and other British residents in the cities, and United Empire Loyalists from 
the States, and disbanded soldiers, to whom grants of land had been made in \-arious 
parts of the Province, and especially in the eastern townships. From this minority 




HOUSE TO WHICH MONTGOMERY'S BODY WAS CARRIED. 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 81 

came the first demand for larger liberty. These men of British antecedents felt that 
they could not and would not tolerate military sway or civil absolutism. They demanded, 
and they taught the Gallo-Canadians to demand, the rights of free men. At the same 
time, immigration began to flow into that western part of Canada, now called the Province 
of Ontario. It could easily be foreseen that this western part would continue to 
receive a population essentially different from that of Eastern or Lower Canada. A 
wise statesmanship resolved to allow the Eastern and Western sections to develop 
according to their own sentiments, and to give to all Canada a constitution modelled, as 
far as the circumstances of the age and country permitted, on the British Constitution. 
To secure these objects, Mr. Pitt passed the Act of 1791 — an Act that well deserves the 
name, subsequently given to it, of the first " Magna Charta of Canadian freedom." The 
bill divided the ancient " Province of Quebec" into two distinct colonies, under the names 
of Upper and Lower Canada, each section to have a separate elective Assembly. F"ox 
strenuousl)' opposed the division of Canada. "It would be wiser," he said, "to unite 
still more closely the two races than separate them." Burke lent the weight of political 
philosophy to the practical statesmanship of Pitt. " For us to attempt to amalgamate 
two populations composed of races of men diverse in language, laws and habitudes, is a 
complete absurdity," he warmly argued. Pitt's policy combined all that was valuable in 
the arguments of both Fox and Burke. It was designed to accomplish all that is now 
accomplished, according to the spirit as well as the forms of the British Constitution, 
by that federal system under which we are happily living. In order to make the Act 
of I 79 1 successful, only fair play was required, or a disposition on the part of the leaders 
of the people to accept it loyally. All constitutions require that as the condition of 
success. Under Pitt's Act the bounds of freedom could have been widened gradually 
and peacefully. But it did not get fair play in Lower Canada, from either the repre- 
sentatives of the minority or of the majority of the people. The minority had clamoured 
for representative institutions. They got them, and then made the discovery that the 
gift implied the government of the country, not according to their wishes, but according 
TO the wishes of the great body of the people. Naturally enough, the\- then fell back 
on the Legislative Council, holding that it should be composed of men of British race 
only or their sympathisers, and that the Executive should be guided not by the 
representative Chamber, but by the Divinely-appointed Council. On the other hand, 
the representatives of the majority soon awoke to understand the power of the weapon 
that had been put into their hands. When they did understand, there was no end to 
their delight in the use of the weapon. A boy is ready to use his first jack-knife or 
hatchet on anything and everything. So they acted, as if their new weapon could not 
be used too much. As with their countrymen in Old France, their logical powers 
interfered with their success in the practical work of government. They were slow to 
learn that life is broader than logic, and that free institutions are possible only by the 



82 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

* 

practice of mutual forbearance towards each other of the different bodies among whom 
the supreme power is distributed. Still, the measure of constitutional freedom that had 
been generously bestowed had its legitimate effect on the French-Canadians. They 
learned to appeal to British precedents, and a love of British institutions began to take 
possession of thetr minds. Nothing demonstrates this more satisfactorily than the con- 
trast between their inaction during 1775-6, and their united and hearty action during the 
war of 181 2-1 5. That war, which may be regarded as an episode in the constitutional 
history we are sketching, teaches to all who are willing to be taught several important 
lessons. It showed that French-Canadians had not forgotten how to fight, and that ac- 
cording as they were trusted so would they fight. No better illustration can be given 
than Chateauguay, where Colonel de Salaberry with 300 Canadian militiamen and a few 
Highlanders victoriously drove back an army 7000 strong. The Canadians everywhere 
flew to arms, in a quarrel, too, with the bringing on of which they had nothing to dd. 
The Governor sent the regular troops to the frontiers, and confided the guardianship of 
Quebec to the city militia, while men like Bedard who had been accused of " treason," 
because they understood the spirit of the Constitution better than their accusers, were 
appointed officers. Successive campaigns proved, not only that Canada was unconquer- 
able — even against a people then forty times as numerous — because of the spirit of its 
people, its glorious winters, and northern fastnesses, but also because an unprovoked 
■war upon Canada will never command the united support of the people of the States. 
When the war was declared in 18 12, several of the New England States refused their quotas 
of militia. The Legislature of Maryland declared that they had acted constitutionally in 
refusing. And all over New England secession was seriously threatened. What happened 
then would occur again, under other forms, if an effort were made to conquer four 
or five millions of Canadians, in order to make them citizens of free States. Should 
either political party propose it, that party would seal its own ruin. A great Christian 
people will struggle unitedly and religiously to free millions, never to subdue millions. 
Should momentary madness drive them to attempt the commission of the crime, the 
consequence would more likely be the disruption of the Republic than the conquest of 
Canada. 

So much the episode of 181 2-1 5 teaches, read in the light of the present day. 
When the war was over, the struggles for constitutional development were resumed. 
Complicated in Lower Canada by misunderstandings of race, they broke out in "the 
troubles" or sputterings of rebellion of 1837-38. The forcible reunion of the two 
Canadas in 1840 was a temporary measure, necessitated probably by those troubles. It 
led to friction, irritations, a necessity for double majorities, and perpetual deadlocks. Did 
not Pitt in 1791 foresee these as the sure results in the long run of any such union, 
beautiful in its simplicity though it appears to doctrinaires? The confederation of British- 
America in 1867 put an end to the paralysis, by the adoption of the federal principle. 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DE SCRIPT/ IE 83 

and the ordained extension of Canada to its natural boundarie.; of thrci; oceans on three 
sides and the watershed of the American continent on the fourth. Inul self-government 
having now been attained, our position is no longer colonial. 

What, then, is our destiny to be? Whatever God wills. The only points clear as 
sunlight to us as a people, are, that Canada is free, and that we dare not break up the 
unity of the grandest Empire the world has ever known. Annexation has been advocated, 
but no one has proved that such a change would be, even commercially, to our advantage. 
We would get closer to fifty and be removed farther from two hundred millions. 
Politically, Canada would cease to exist. She would serve merely as a make-weight to 
the Republican or Democratic party. The P'rench-Canadian element, so great a factor 
actually and potentially in our national life, would become a nullity. We would surrender 
all hopes of a distinctive future. Strangers would rule over us; for we are too weak 
to resist the alien forces, and too strong to be readily assimilated. Our neighbours are a 
great people. So are the French and the Germans. But Belgium does not pray to be 
absorbed into France, and Holland would not consent to be annexed to Germany. 
Looking at the question in the light of the past and with foresight of the future, and 
from the point of view of all the higher considerations that sway men, we say, in the 
emphatic language of Scripture, "It is a shame even to speak" of such a thing. We 
would repent it only once, and that would be forever. Their ways are not our ways ; 
their thoughts, traditions, history, are not our thoughts, traditions, history. The occa- 
sional cry for Independence is more honourable; but, to break our national continuity 
in cold blood, to cut ourselves loose from the capital and centre of our strength ! to 
gain — what ? A thousand possibilities of danger, and not an atom of added strength. 
What, then, are we to do? "Things cannot remain as they are," we are told. Who 
says that they can ? They have been changing every decade. The future will bring 
changes with it, and wisdom too, let us hope, such as our fathers had, to enable us to do our 
duty in the premises. In the meantime, we have enough to do. We have to simplify 
the machinery of our government, to make it less absurdly expensive, and to disembarrass 
it of patronage. We have to put an emphatic stop to the increase of the public debt. 
We have to reclaim half a continent, and throw doors wide open that millions may 
enter in. We have to o-row wiser and better. We have to guard our own heads while 
we seek to do our duty to our day and generation. Is not that work enough for the 
next half century ? No one is likely to interfere with us, but we are not thereby 
absolved from the responsibility of keeping up the defences of Halifax and Quebec, and 
fortifying Montreal by a cincture of detached forts. These cities safe, Canada might 
be invaded, but could not be held. But what need of defence, when we are assured 
that " our best defence is no defence." Go to the mayors of our cities and bid them 
dismiss the police. Tell bankers not to keep revolvers, and householders to poison 
their watch -dogs. At one stroke we save what we are expending on all the old- 



8a 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 



fashioned arrangements of the Dark Ages. It has been discovered that the " best defence 
is no defence I " 

It does not become grown men to dream dreams in broad daylight. Wise men 
regard facts. Here is the Admiral's ship, the shapely "Northampton," in the harbour of 




THE CITADEL. 
From H. M. S. "Northampton." 

Quebec. Come on board, 
and from the quarter-deck 
take a view of the orand old storied rock. 
Whose money built that vast Citadel that crowns its strength ? Who gave us those 
mighty batteries on the Levis heights opposite ? What enemy on this planet could take 
Quebec as long as the "Northampton" pledges to us the command of the sea? And 
for answer, a charmer says, you would be far stronger, without the forts and without 
the " Northampton ! " 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTUE 



HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




VIEW FROM THE OLD MANOR HOUSE AT BEAUFORT. 

QUEBEC— the spot where the most refined civiHzation of the Old World first touched 
the barbaric wildness of the New— is also the spot where the largest share of the 
picturesque and romantic element has gathered round the outlines of a grand though 
rugged nature. It would seem as if those early heroes, the flower of France's chivalry, 



86 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

who conquered a new country from a savage climate and a savage race, had impressed 
the features of their nationahty on this rock fortress forever. May Quebec always 
retain its French idiosyncrasy ! The shades of its brave founders claim this as their 
right. From Champlain and Laval down to De Levis and Montcalm, they deserve this 
monument to their efforts to build up and preserve a "New France" in this western 
world ; and Wolfe for one would not have grudged that the memory of his gallant foe 
should here be closely entwined with his own. All who know the value of the 
mingling of diverse elements in enriching national life, will rejoice in the preservation 
among us of a distinctly French element, blending harmoniously in our Canadian 
nationality. 

" Saxon and Celt and Norman are we ; " 

and we may well be proud of having within our borders a " New France " as well as a 
" Greater Britain." 

Imagination could hardly have devised a nobler portal to the Dominion than the 
mile-wide strait, on one side of which rise the green heights of Levis, and on the other 
the bold, abrupt outlines of Cape Diamond. To the traveller from the Old World who 
first drops anchor under those dark rocks and frowning ramparts, the coup d'oeil must pre- 
sent an impressive frontispiece to the unread volume. The outlines of the rocky rampart 
and its crowning fortress, as seen from a distance, recall both Stirling and Ehrenbreitstein, 
while its aspect as viewed from the foot of the time-worn, steep-roofed old houses that 
skirt the heieht, carries at least a suggestion of Edinburgh Castle from the Grassmarket. 
To the home-bred Canadian, coming from the flat regions of Central Canada by the 
train that skirts the southern shore and suddenly finds its way along the abrupt, wooded 
heights that end in Point L(?vis, with quaint steep-gabled and balconied French houses 
climbing the rocky ledges to the right, and affording to curious passengers, through open 
doors and windows, many a naive glimpse of the simple domestic life of the liabitans, 
the first sight of Quebec from the terminus or the ferry station is a revelation. It is 
the realization of dim, hovering visions conjured up by the literature of other lands more 
rich in the picturesque element born of antiquity and historical association. On our 
Republican neighbours, the effect produced is the same. Quebec has no more enthusiastic 
admirers than its hosts of American visitors ; and no writers have more vividly and 
appreciatively described its peculiar charm than Parkman and Howells. 

Looking at Quebec first from the opposite heights of Levis, and then passing 
slowly across from shore to shore, the striking features of the city and its sur- 
roundings come gradually into view, in a manner doubl)- enchanting if it happens 
to be a soft, misty summer morning. At first, the dim, huge mass of the rock 
and Citadel, — seemingly one grand fortification, — absorbs the attention. Then the 
d^-itails come out, one after another. The firm lines of rampart and bastion, the 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTUE 



87 







QUEBEC FROM POINT LEVIS 

shelvine outlines of the rock, 
Dufferin Terrace with its h_<j-ht 
pavihons, the slope of Mountain 
Hill, the Grand Batter), the con- 
spicuous pile of La\al Unixersit), 
the dark serried mass of houses 
clustering along- the foot of the 
rocks and rising gradual!) up the 
gentler incline into which these 
fall away, the busy qua) s, the 
large passenger boats steaming in 
and out from their \\har\es, all 
impress the stranger with the 
most distinctive aspects of Quebec 
before he lands. 

As soon as he has landed, he is 
impressed by other features of its 
ancient and foreign aspect. The 
narrow, crooked lanes that do duty 
for streets, the grimy, weather- 
beaten walls and narrow windows 




on either side, the steep-roofed antique French houses, the cork-screw ascent towards 



88 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

the upper town, the rugged pavement over which the wheels of the caleche noisily 
rattle, recall the peculiarities of an old French town. And before Prescott Gate was 
sacrificed to modern utilitarian demands, the effect was intensified by the novel sen- 
sation — in America — of enterino- a walled town through a real g-ate, frowningf down 
as from a mediaeval story. 

The short, crooked streets of Quebec, diverging at all kinds of angles, make it 
as difficult to find one's way as in Venice or old Boston. It has grown, like old 
towns, instead of being laid out like new ones, and its peculiarities of growth have 
been differentiated to a remarkable degree by the exigencies of its site and fortifications. 
The "lie" of the place can be best explained by saying that the walls embrace a 
rudely-drawn section of an ellipse, the straight side of which divides the city from 
the comparatively level ground of the country In rear (towards the north-west), while 
the Citadel occupies the western corner of the curve which follows the edge of the 
precipice abutting on the St. Lawrence, turning an abrupt corner round the Seminary 
Gardens, and following the line of the high ground till it descends to the valley 
of the St. Charles. It was on tJiis side of the natural fortress, to which Quebec 
owes its antiquity and its pre-eminence as a capital, that the life of the Old World 
left its first trace on the history of the Canadian wilderness. For here, a little way up 
the river, Jacques Cartler anchored his ships, which had so astounded the unsophisticated 
savages as they came, like things of life, sailing up the river. Here, too, he and 
his men spent the long, bitter winter, waiting wearily for the slowly - coming spring 
which so many of them never saw. 

But there are pleasanter associations with the side of Quebec which the visitor usually 
sees first. As we walk or drive up Mountain Hill by the winding ascent which originally 
existed as a rough gully, the associations are all of Champlain, the Chevalier Bayard 
of the French i^co-nnc and the founder of Quebec. One cannot but wonder whether there 
rose before his inner vision a picture of the city which he may have hoped would grow 
from the oak and walnut-shaded plateau by the river, and up the sides of the rugged 
hill that now bears its mass of ancient buildings, climbing to the zig-zagged walls and 
bastions that crown the highest point of what was then a bare beetling rock. As 
he watched the stately trees falling under the strokes of his sturdy axe-men — where 
dingy warehouses and high tenements are now densely massed together under the clift 
— -he may have dreamed of a second Rouen, the queenly capital of a " New France," giving 
laws to a territory as illimitable as the wilderness of hill and forest that stretched away 
on every side beyond the range of eye and imagination. 

But before ascending Mountain Hill, let us turn aside Into the little Notre Dame 
Place, where stands a small quaint church with high-peaked roof and antique belfry, one 
of the oldest buildings In Quebec, for Its walls date back at least before 1690 when the fete 
of Notre Dame des Victoires was established to commemorate the defeat of Sir William 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 89 

Phipps. It was close to this spot that Champlain built his first fort and warehouse for 
stores and peltries. A little farther to the left — where the Champlain Market, built out 
of the stones of the old Parliament buildings, presents on market days a busy and 
picturesque tableau — stood the first " Abitation de Ouebecq," perpetuated for us by 
Champlain's inartistic pencil, with its three tall, narrow wooden houses set close 
together, its store-house and dove-cote, its loop-holed gallery running round the second 
storey, its moat- and surrounding wall. Just above frowned the dark-brown rock ; the 
blue waters of the St. Lawrence almost washed its outer wall ; while the gardens 
which Champlain delighted to lay out and plant with roses, lay on three sides, to 
grace the wilderness abode. Now there are no gardens and no roses, — only a busy 
market-place that blooms out periodically, to be sure, with llowers and fruit ; masses 
of buildings, narrow streets and crowded docks, where the tides of the St. Lawrence 
washed the shingly beach ; huge piles of wharves driving the river still farther 
to bay ; loaded wains carrying the produce of the Old World from the great ocean 
vessels or the produce of the New World to them ; light French ca/cc/ics dashing by 
the primitive carts of the market-folk, their drivers exchanging gay badinage as they 
pass ; grave, long-robed priests, or jaunty French clerks or lads in the Seminary uniform 
hurrying to and fro and replying in French if you ask them a question in English ; — 
all the busy life of a complex civilization, combined with an air of anticjuity which 
•makes it difficult to realize that even three centuries ao'o the scene was one unbroken 
wilderness. 

Pursuing Champlain Street a little farther, the lower town presents not a few 
characteristic studies. A quaint old street — " Sous Le Cap " — lies so close under the 
precipice surmounted by the Grand Battery and Laval University that no casual passer- 
by would think of penetrating its obscurity. Its dilapidated old houses, with their backs 
to the cliff, are braced against their opposite neighbours by cross-beams of timber 
to keep them upright, and even the narrow French carts can with difficulty pass 
through what looks more like a Scottish wynd than a Canadian street ; while the old red- 
capped habitant who sits calmly smoking at his door might have stepped out of a French 
picture. If we pass down to the docks, we may see ocean vessels preparing for departure, 
perhaps, out in the stream, a timber ship loading her cargo, — the piles of fragrant wood 
suggesting the distant forests where, in the clear, sharp winter days the men from the 
lumber camp were busy hewing down and squaring the giant pines, the growth of cen- 
turies of summers. 

But it is time for us to retrace our steps from this region of shipping and docks 
and piers, of warehouses and offices, stretching along the ledge underneath the Citadel. 
We may follow back Champlain Street into Little Champlain Street, and pass on 
to the foot of Break-neck Steps, a shorter and more direct route than the circui- 
tous one of Mountain Hill, though there is a still easier mode of ascent provided 



90 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 



in the new elevator, which transports you to the terrace above without any exertion. 
On a market day, the steps are aUve with the good folks of the upper town 
going down to market or to business ; and the busy scene below — the crowd of people 




and conveyances in the market- 
place, with the old houses built 
close against the cliff, the background of steamboats and shipping, and the terrace with 
its light, graceful pagodas against the sky above — affords one of the many bits of 
contrast in which Quebec abounds. 

A few minutes bring us to the top of the stairs and out on what was old 
Durham Terrace, which, extended at the suggestion of Lord Duffcrin to the foot of the 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIJE 



QI 



glacis of the Citadel, lias ap- 
propriately taken its present 
name and, supplied with 
light pavilions at the points 
commanding the most strik- 
ing views, now bears the 
name of the popular Gov- 
ernor who so warmly ap- 
preciated the old city. It 
affords one of the noblest 
promenades that a city 
could possess, from the mag- 
nificent view it commands ; 
while the old portion which, 
as Durham Terrace, perpetu- 
ated the name of one of the 
ablest British Governors of 
Canada, is also the centre of 
the most romantic and heroic 
memories that cluster round 
Quebec. F'or, close by, in the 
time of Champlain, was built 
the rude stockaded fort, within 
which he and his men were fain 
to take refuge from the incur- 
sions of the fierce Iroquois ; 
while here, also, rose the old 
Chateau St. Louis which, for 
two centuries, under the Flcitr 
dc Lis or the Union Jack, was 
the centre of Canadian govern- 
ment and the heart and core 
of Canadian defence against 
Iroquois, British or American 
assailants. The Chateau of St. 
Louis — burned down at last, 
its stones helping to build 
this broad terrace — might fur- 
nish material for half a dozen 




LOOKING UP FROM THE WHARVES. 



92 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 




< 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTUE 



93 



romances. Looking across from the busj' mass of swarming life below, and the flitting 
steamers and stately ships with which the river is studded, you see, first, the picturesque 
heio-hts of Levis, on which rise, tier after tier — from the busy town of South Quebec 
and the Grand Trunk buildino-s, a town in themselves, — villao-e after village, grlitterino- 
church spires, massive conventual buildings gleaming out of embosoming foliage, till 
the eye follows the curve of the height down again to the river. Thence it follows 

still the line of the lower hills that bound 
the receding shores of the widening expanse 
— the bold outline, looming perhaps, through 
one of the frequent sea- mists, of the 
richly-wooded, hamlet -sprinkled Isle of 




/■7 



■"'" I 



CUSTOM HOUSE 



Orleans, — the old He de Bacchus, 

— then northward, across the soft gray expanse of river, with its 

white sails or dark steam-craft, to the hither shore, with the light 

mist of Montmorency on the distant woods, and the grand outlines 

of the Laurentian Hills that here first meet the river whose name 

they bear; while nearer still, the Grecian front and dome of the Custom House, the 

mass of Laval University and the towers and steeples of the upper town fill in a varied 

foreground. To the right, the terrace stretches away in a promenade, till it is cut short 

by the steep slope of the Citadel crowned by rampart and bastion, while behind lie the 

shady walks of the Governor's Garden, surrounding the pillar dedicated to the joint 

memory of Wolfe and Montcalm. It is a view to which no artist's pencil could do 

justice, since no picture could give it in its completeness, and it would take many to 



94 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

fully illustrate its ever-varying aspect from sunrise to sunset, or when the moonlight 
enfolds it in a serener and more solemn beauty. 

One might dream away a summer day or a summer night on Dufferin Terrace ; 
but the present claims attention as well as the past. Passing to the rear, you can 
wander through the shady walks of the Governor's Garden or sit on the iron 
seats near the " Ring," and call up before the imagination the stirring, martial 
scenes so often enacted on the Grande Place before the chateau. There the rem- 
nant of the unfortunate Hurons pitched their tents after the butchery of thousands 
of their number by the Iroquois on the Isle of Orleans, and there they were allowed to 
build a small fort. Thither, too, came a deputation of forty Iroquois, tattooed and 
naked, vociferating an appeal for peace to the Ononthio or Governor, in the summer of 
1666, when the gallant regiment of Carignan-Salieres had at last succeeded in instilling 
fear into their savage breasts. Here, also, many a French Governor, as the represent- 
ative of His Most Catholic Majesty, surrounded by a bewigged and plumed retinue, 
received with due circumstance the keys of the Castle of St. Louis. 

But it is time that we ascended to the Citadel, at which we have been so long 
looking from below. A flight of steps takes us up from the western end of Dufferin 
Terrace to the glacis. Here we again stop to look down. It is the view 

from the terrace, expanded in every direction. At our feet lies the busy panorama 
of river and docks ; the Grand Trunk ferry-boat, like a tiny batteaii, is stealing 
across the river in a wide curve, to avoid the pressure of the tide. On the other side 
we see trains arriving and departing, steaming along the rocky ledge of the opposite 
height upward towards Montreal or downward on the way to the sea. Just below the 
Citadel stretches the long massive dock of the Allan Steamship Company, at which, if it is 
Saturday morning, the Liverpool steamer is lying, getting ready for departure. Vans 
loaded with freight or luggage are discharging their contents into the hold. Passengers 
are stepping on board to take possession of their cabins, accompanied by friends reluctant 
to say the final adieu. One looks with a strange interest, never dulled by repetition, 
at the black hull about to bear its precious freight across the wide ocean to "the under 
world," unwitting of the peril it is going to brave. 

From the terrace we climb by a flight of some two hundred and fifty steps to 
the top of the glacis. A path round its grassy slope leads to the entrance of the 
Citadel itself — ascending from St. Louis Street, built up on each side by solid stone 
walls. Passing through the celebrated chain gates, we find ourselves in the spacious 
area made by the widened ditch and retiring bastion, the level sward being used 
for a parade-ground. On the green sides of the earthwork abo\'e the ditch 
goats are peacefully grazing, giving an aspect of rural tran(iuillit\- that presents a pic- 
turesque contrast to the massive portals of Dalhousie Gate, with its guard-rooms built 
into the thickness of the arch on either side. Entering through it, we are at last 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIIE 9S 

within tlie Citadel itself, which, spreading over forty acres its labyrinth of ditch and 
earthwork and rampart and bastion, impresses us at once with the appropriateness 
of its proud title of the Canadian Gibraltar. Ascending to the broad gravel walk on 
the top of the bastion, we retrace our steps toward the river by the parallel line of wall 
on the inner side of the ditch, pierced with embrasures for the cannon that command 
every avenue of approach. Passing on, we take in glimpses of the ever-glorious 
view which bursts upon us at last in all its magnificence, as we stand on the King's 
Bastion beside the tfag-staff, — a view which, take it all in all, it is not too much to 
say is unsurpassed in North America. Quebec — with its quaint contrasts of old 
and new — lies at our feet, the fringe of buildings and wharves at the foot of Cape 
Diamond literally so, the remainder of the city clustering about and up the height, like 
Athens about her Acropolis. Across the river studded with craft of all imaginable 
variety — from the huge primitive raft that hardly seems to move, to the swift, 
arrowy steam-tug or the stately ocean-ship that spreads her sails to catch the breeze 
— the eye ascends the heights of Levis, beyond the masses of railway buildings to the 
undulating curves in which nestle the clusters of tiny French houses, with their great 
protecting churches ; then it follows the widening river, studded with sails, to the dim 
blue woods and distant hamlets of Orleans ; on, still, to the bold mountains that 
form so grand a background to the cultivated slopes which descend to the long village 
street of the Beauport road, with its church towers guiding the eye to the Mont- 
morency cleft or cniboiiclntrc, in which, on a very clear day, you can just discern the 
faint white spray ascending from the F"all , and farther on, to Cap Tourmente and 
the blue mountain of St. Anne. Nearer, the i^lance returnino- takes in the windintj 
St. Charles, the outlying suburbs of St. John and St. Roch and St. Sauveur, the 
crooked line of the city wall, the green turf and poplars of the Esplanade, the 
shady grounds and Officers' Quarters of the Artillery Barracks, the Hotel Dieu, 
Laval University with its belfry, the towers of the Basilica, the Gothic turrets of 
the English Cathedral , while, just below, we have a bird's-eye view of Dufferin Terrace 
and its pavilions ; of the Governor's Garden, with the top of Montcalm's monument rising 
above the trees ; of the line of Champlain Street and Champlain Market, and the rows 
of tall French houses that rise up against the dark, slaty cliff, with its fringe and tufts 
of scanty vegetation ; of the line of wharves and docks, steamboats and steamships, till 
the field of view is suddenly curtailed by the abutments of the cliff on which we 
stand. 

But there are other points of view, so we ^, pass on along the entrance front of the 
Officers' Quarters, a portion of which is set apart for the summer residence of the 
Governor-General. It is not a very imposing vice-regal abode , but the simplicity of 
the accommodation and the restricted space are more than atoned for by the noble 
vistas of river and height and mountain commanded by the deeply-embrasured windows. 



96 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 



In a line with the Officers' Quarters are the hospital, the magazines and the Observ- 
atory, where the falling black ball gives the time daily, at one o'clock, to the shipping 
below. Outside the Governor-General's Quarters, and extending towards the King's 
Bastion, a platform has been erected which, on summer fete-nights, serves as a prome- 
nade unique and wonderful, from which " fair women and brave men " look down 
five hundred feet into the dark abyss below, sparkling with myriads of lights gleaming 

from city, height 
and river. 

At the Prince's 
Bastion, on the 
western angle of the 
fortress, where the 
" Prince's Feather," 
carved m stone, 
commemorates the 







visit of the Prince of Wales, the 
view is still more extensive. West- 
ward, \ye look up the river, to the 
green bluff curving into Wolfe's 
Cove and Sillery, while across we 
still have before us the varied line 
of the opposite heights, with their 
long street of old French houses 

creeping just under its wooded sides, and a little farther to the right you catch 
the gleam of the steeples of New Liverpool. 

After the eye has been partially satisfied with gazing on this grand panorama, we 
may stroll leisurely along the wall, taking in the ever -shifting views from the various 




QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 



•97 




VIEW FROM THE CIT-^DEL 

points, and observino the massiveness 
of the bastions and caithworl^s that with many 
a bewildering zigzag encompass the cential foiti- 
tication. As we pass back thiough the cham gates, 
let us stop to look into the casemates, or rooms 
built in the interior of the massive earthwork. One catches 
a glimpse, through the intervening darkness, of a lighted in- 
terior, reminding us of a Dutch picture, throwing a bit of 
domestic life into strong light and shade. Here are rooms where the ,;:rv 
soldiers and their families reside, the solid earthwork above and around 
them, deep windows letting in the light and air. Before leaving the precincts 
of the Citadel, take a look at the rock on which it is built — an uneven, circular 
surface of light gray rock bearing the soiibrnj?ict of " Hog's Back." No French or 
ancient associations attach to the Citadel, except to one magazine near the Prince's 
Bastion, the inner portion of which seems to belong to the French rdgiinc, being 
built of rubble, the outer casing only being modern. The plans for the present 
Citadel were supervised by the Iron Duke, though he never saw the place. The chain 
gates let us out into a sort of extension of the ditch, from which we emerge by the 



98 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 




MONUMENT TO WOLFE AND MONTCALM. 



sally-port. From thence, a path leads over the broken ground 
of the " Plains " to the ball-cartridge field. As we pass we 
shall not fail to note the broken grassy curves and mounds that 
preserve the outlines of the old French earthworks — the prede- 
cessors of the present fortifications, — a prom- 
inent and interesting object. Approach- 
ing the Martello tower we are obliged 
to go out on the St. Louis road, or the 



Clieniin dc la Grande Allec, as it was called 

in the old French period. Following this 

still westward, a turn to the left, between 

the turnpike and the race-course, takes us 

down to some barren and neglected-looking 

ground on which stands Wolfe's monument, 

and a little farther on, a road leads down- 
wards to the Cove where Wolfe landed 

his troops the night before the battle, 

when even Montcalm at first refused to 

attach importance to what he thought was 

"only Mr. Wolfe, with a small party, come to burn a few houses, and return." A 

road now winds down the face 
of the cliff among the strag- 
gling pines where, in Wolfe's 
time, there was only a rough 
gully up which he and his sol- 



diers scrambled, dragging with 
them a six -pounder — their only 
gun — which plaj'ed no mean 
part in gaining the victory. 
Now the quiet bay, with its 
rafts and lumber-piles and pass- 
ing craft, is peaceful enough, 
and in the soft purple light 
of a summer evening, seems 
to harmonize less with martial 
memories than with the asso- 
ciation with Gray's Elegy be- 
queathetl to It by Wolfe, who, 
on the night before the decisive 




TIME-BALL, FROM THE PRINCE'S BASTION. 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 



99 




WOLFE'S COVE. 



TOO FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

action, repeated here, with perhaps some sad presentiment of impending fate, the 
stanza — 

" The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, 

And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, 
Await alike the inevitable hour — 

The paths of glory lead but to the grave ! " 

Retracing our steps to the St. Louis road, we follow it straight back to the city, 
noting the fine new pile of buildings erected for the Houses of Parliament, just beyond 
which we pass through one of the old gates of Quebec, the St. Louis Gate, now 
massively rebuilt with embrasures and Norman towers — one of the three still to be 
preserved to the city. But it is not the old St. Louis Gate, with its Aveather- 

beaten superstructure and zigzag approach. When the excessive newness has somewhat 
worn off, it will doubtless be much more imposing than its predecessor, and more fitted, 
like its neighbour, Kent Gate, built at her Majesty's expense, to hold up its head in 
a progressive age, which does not appreciate dilapidation, however picturesque. 

Passing through St. Louis Gate, with its new Norman turrets, we have to our right the 
winding ascent to the Citadel and to our left the Esplanade ; while at the corner of the 
St. Louis Hotel we are again in the business centre of the upper town, and soon come 
to the open area of the Place d'Armes, whence we pass into Buade Street, on which 
stands the new Post-Ofiice, a handsome building of gray cut-stone, plain but in good taste, 
with two short Ionic pillars at the entrance. The old Post-Office which preceded it had 
a history, symbolized by a French inscription under the sign of the Chien d'Or, or 
Golden Dog, which legendary animal still retains his post over the entrance of the present 
building. This inscription was the expression of the wrongs suffered by the original 
owner — a merchant named Philibert — at the hands of the Litendant Bigot of unsavoury 
memory. It ran, in old French — 

"Je suis vn chien qvi ronge l'os, 
En le rongeant je prends mon repos, 
Vn tems viendra qvi n'est pas venv 
QvE JE mordrav qvi mavra mordv." 

The legend may be freely translated, " / bide my tinier Poor Philibert was never able 
to put his threat into execution, his life and his plans for revenge being suddenly brought 
to an end one day on Mountain Hill, by a sword-thrust from a French officer, no doubt 
at the Intendant's instigation. The story had a sequel, however. Philibert's brother, 
who came all the way from Bordeaux as his executor and blood-avenger, tracked the 
assassin to his refuge in the East Indies, and slew him there. Champlain's bust, 
and the symbolic dog over the entrance, with the sign of " The Golden Dog " on an 
inn close by, connect the new Post-Office with the memories of old Quebec, while 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIJE 



lOI 



the name of one of the streets at the corner of which it stands — Buade Street — recalls 
the palmiest days of the French regime, under Louis Buade, Count de Frontenac. From 
here Mountain Hill begins its circuitous descent, and on the opposite side is the old- 
fashioned-building, originally the Archbishop's Palace, which has been used for many 
years as the Parliament Buildings. 

Going down Mountain Hill from hence, we come to the dilapidated stairway, the 
antique, gambrel-roofed buildings beside 
it being very characteristic of the old city. 
But we will not descend to the lower 
town, but walk back up Buade Street 
till we come to what, until re- 
cently, was the market-place of 
the upper town, now trans- 
ferred, however, to the open 
space in front of St. John's 
Gate. On one side of 
the wide, open square. 




stands the Basilica, as the French 
Cathedral is called, linked with some 
of the oldest memories of the settlement 
of Quebec. It hardly looks its age, and 
is not by any means so imposing as Notre 
Dame, of Montreal. It was begun by Bishop 
Laval in 1647, and was consecrated in 1666, 
under the name of the Church of the Im- 
maculate Conception. Its massive facade, with its tower on one side and its tall spire 
on the other, gives an impression of a rare solidity within, and the lofty arches of the 
nave would have a fine effect, if it were not finished in a cold and dead florid Renais- 
sance style, which looks quite out of keeping with the homely antiquity of the "gray 
lady of the North." But the main charm of the building lies in its long association 
with the religious life of French-Canada, from the days of Le Jeune and De Jogues, 



ST. JOHN'S GATE. 



I02 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 



Madame de la Peltrie and Marie de I'lncarnation. Within these walls many an ago- 
nized vow and prayer has gone up from the early martyrs and heroes of the Canadian 
Mission for the conversion of Huron and Iroquois, and for safety from the murderous 
attacks of their savage foes. Here, too, have echoed the Te Deums of a grateful colony, 
in the joy of some signal deliverance or decisive victory. The 
somewhat gaudy decoration of the present interior seems to 
fade away as we go back, in thought, to the days when the 
bare rafters over-arched the self-exiled worshippers whose 
needs and enthusiasm mingled in prayers of pathetic earnest- 
ness to Him in whose cross and sufferings they deemed 
themselves sharers. 

It is a natural transition from the Basilica to the Semi- 
nary, and a few steps lead through the massive open iron gates 
of Laval University, along the narrow passage that brings 
us to the door of the Seminary chapel. This chapel is over 
a hundred years old, Mr. Le Moine tells us, and its chief 
historic association is that of having served as a military 




ST. LOUIS GATi: 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTH'E 



lO^ 




THE BASILICA, 
From Fabrique Street. 

prison for American officers 
taken prisoners of war in 
the attack by Arnold and 
Montgomery. But the 
Seminary was founded by 
Bishop Laval in 1663, about the time that the Basilica was completed. Laval University 
is a secular off-shoot of the Seminary proper, which was founded for theological education 
only, — this being still the object of the Grand Sciuinairc. The buildings of the Semi- 
nary enclose the site of the first house built by the first French settler Hebert, and its 
garden, with the neighbouring streets, occupies the land first cleared for agricultural pur- 
poses. The University building, with its spacious new wings, extends to the very edge 
of the promontory, and from its tower another view can be obtained of the city and its 
surroundings. 

There is not much to see in the University itself, so we pass out again and retrace 
our steps to the Little Market Square in front of the Basilica, where stands the long 



I04 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 



[to- 



row of caliches whose drivers, French and Irish, have a keen eye for any passer-by 
who seems to wear the tourist's air of observation. Just opposite the Cathedral stood 
until recently the large pile of the Jesuit Barracks— originally the Jesuit College— 
with its yellow, stuccoed front and grated windows, and a high portal with the time- 
worn letters " I. H. S." still 
visible as the mark of its 
early owners. 

Turning back we pass down 
St. Famille Street, which ex- 
tends along the eastern side 
of the Seminary Gardens 
and leads to the opening in 
the wall where but recently 
stood Hope Gate. From 
this point there used to be a 
continuous promenade round 
the ramparts, which, when 
the present work of pulling 
down and rebuildine is com- 
pleted, will again exist in a 
greatly improved state, in 
fulfilment of one of Lord 
Dufferin's plans for the 
adornment of Quebec. But 
now we will retrace our 
steps to the Cathedral 
Square, and crossing it at 
its upper end, pass in front 
of the English Cathedral, 
a sombre-looking building, 
with a substantial turret, 
standing within an old-fash- 
ioned, shady enclosure. A little farther on we come to a gray, ecclesiastical-looking 
cluster of buildings around a small green " close," consisting of the old Scottish church, 
dating from 1810, with its substantial manse and school-house. The group seems to 
belong to a Scottish landscape as naturally as the greater part of Quebec does to a 
French one. 

Just opposite the church stands what was the old gaol, associated with some grim 
memories of the days of political imprisonments, now, through the generosity of Dr. 




LOOKING ACROSS THE ESPLANADE TO BEAUFORT. 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIJE 105 

Morrin, one of Quebec's old citizens, converted into a Presbyterian College, a part of it 
being devoted to the rooms of the Literary and Historical Society. 

Passing along St. Ursule Street, we come back to St. Louis Street, and, turning 
the corner of the long range of massive gray stone convent buildings, we reach the entrance 
to the chapel, at the end of Parloir Street. The Ursuline Convent and gardens occupy 
no small portion of the space within the walls, and they deserve it by a well-earned 
right. The chapel of the convent has various interesting reminiscences and associations, 
religious and artistic, and martial as well. One interesting and suggestive object is a 
votive lamp, lighted a hundred and fifty years ago by two French officers, on their 
sisters taking the veil, and kept burning ever since, except for a short time during the 
siege of i 759. There are paintings sent from France at the Revolution — one said to be 
by Vandyke and one by Champagna — and wood carvings, the work of the first Canadian 
School of xA.rt, at St. Ann's, early in the eighteenth century. Montcalm, taken thither 
to die, was buried within the convent precincts in a grave dug for him by a bursting 
shell ; and his skull, carefully preserved, is still shown to visitors to the chapel. 

From the Ursuline Convent a short walk brings us back to the Esplanade, between 
the St. Louis and Kent Gates. Turning into its quiet area, faced by a row of rather 
sombre-looking private residences, we ascend the slope to the walk that runs along the 
line of wall. Looking city-ward, from one point in our promenade we take in the 
idyllic view of the tranquil Esplanade, with its poplars and disused guns, the ancient 
little Jesuit church and the old National school immediately in front ; while across 
the ramparts and the abrupt descent beyond, we catch the blue strip of river between 
us and Beauport, with white sails skimming across, and the white houses scattered 
along the green slopes opposite, that end again in a grand mountain wall. Proceeding 
on from the Esplanade, we walk across the top of Kent Gate and then follow the line of 
the ramparts to the massive arched portal of St. John's Gate, whence we look down 
on the busy Montcalm Market immediately below, with its primitive French market- 
carts and good-humoured French market-women, who will sell you a whole handful 
of bouquets for a few cents. We have to leave the ramparts soon after passing 
St. John's Gate, the promenade, which will be continuous, not being yet finished. 

Taking our way back, we return to the square, and engage one of the eager caleche- 
drivers to take us out to Montmorency Falls, a nine-mile drive. Ascending to the 
high-perched seat in the little two-wheeled vehicle, we are soon rattling over the not 
very smooth thoroughfare of the St. John suburbs, among modern and uninteresting 
streets — for these suburbs have been again and again laid waste by fire. We pass 
near the ruins of the old Intendant's Palace, and are soon on Dorchester Bridge, the 
gray rock of the city rising behind us, the valley of the St. Charles winding away to 
the north-west. " There," our driver will say, looking up at the river where the tide 
is rising among some ship-yards, "is where Jacques Cartier laid up his ships." Near 



To6 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

that point, also, Montcalm's bridge of boats crossed the river, in 1759, and in a large 
entrenchment, where once stood the Jesuit Mission House, the remnants of his scattered 
army rallied after the battle of the " Plains." Even the calecIic-Ar'wo.x's, are antiquarian 
and historical in Quebec, and take pride in acting the part of cicerone to the venerable 
associations of the place. 

The memory of Montcalm is associated with many points along the pleasant road 
that leads through long-stretching French villages, between the green meadows that 
slope up to the hills on the one side and down to the St. Lawrence on the other. 
The burning sun of our Canadian summer, softened here by the frequent mists and fogs 
from the sea, does not parch the verdure, as it too often does in regions farther in- 
land. The velvety green of the low-lying meadows, dotted and fringed with graceful 
elms and beech and maple, would do no discredit to the Emerald Isle ; and if the 
villas and fields were surrounded by hedges instead of fences, the landscape might easily 
be taken for an English one. About three miles below Quebec we pass the Beauport 
Asylum, a fine, substantial building, with a good deal of ornamental statuary and other 
decoration in front, in which a large number of lunatics are cared for under Govern- 
ment supervision. Here and there other residences and grounds attract the eye. The 
most notable in bye-gone times was the manor-house of old Beauport, recently destroyed 
by fire, and occupied in 1759 by Montcalm as his head-quarters. An old leaden plate 
was lately found in the ruins, bearing an inscription, interesting to antiquarians. The 
date of its first erection, as given in the plate, proves the ruined mansion to have 
been older than any existing in Canada to-day, since it preceded by three years 
that of the Jesuits' residence at Sillery. Robert Giffart, physician and founder of the 
Seigniory, figures in a curious old story told by the Abbe Ferland, of the enforced 
penitence and submission of a rebellious vassal — Jean Guion, or Dion — a lettered stone- 
mason, who thought fit to refuse the homage he owed to Giffart, his feudal lord. The 
vicinity of the ruined chateau bearing such interesting associations, is called La 
Canardicrc, preserving, in this cognomen, a reminiscence of the time when this Giffart, a 
keen sportsman, was wont to bag wild duck in large numbers along the marsh}- bank of 
the stream, the " Ridsscan dc I'Oiirs" on which he erected his rude stockaded mansion. 

One or two other chateaux are still inhabited by the representatives of the French 
families of the Old Regime. By degrees the scattered mansions, in their settings of 
green turf and foliage, merge into the long lines of Beauport village, its neat, quaint 
houses, generall)' of substantial stone, 'steep - roofed and dormer-windowed, and often 
completed with the little balcony ; some of them old and weather-worn, others spick and 
span in gay new paint, and most of them bright with a profusion of flowers in a little 
plot before the door or in the windows. liehind each little liouse is its riband-like 
strip of ground, seemingly narrowed down to the smallest space within which a 
horse could tm'n ; and here and there may be seen a man at work with the primiti\e cart 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 



107 



and single horse — all his little farm will support — which 
carries to market the vegetables that are his chief de- 
pendence. Altogether, the light-hearted, open-air life of 
the simple folk carries a pleasant suggestion of that 
so vividly sketched in " Evangeline " and of ''la belle 
N'oniiaudie," without its Gothic churches 




WAYSIDE CROSS, AND BEAUPORT 
CHURCH, 

and its peculiar costume. The 
massive stone building that lifts 
its gleaming, protecting spires 
high above the humble dwellings 
at its feet, is of no old Norman 
type, but a plain, straightfor- 
ward substantial structure, of the same model 
are generally built. It looks large enough to contain the whole population of a 

village seven or eight miles long, and doubtless on fete-days it does so. 

Much more quaint and picturesque are the tiny wayside chapels and crosses which 
we occasionally pass— the former sometimes relics of the days when the lono- villao-e 



on which the French-Canadian churches 



io8 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

was a hamlet, and glad to have a chapel of the smallest, of its very own ; while the 
wayside cross, close by, with its sacred symbol of sufTering casting its pathetic shadow 
on the life and brightness around, would be quite in place in a landscape of France or 
of Southern Germany. 

At last the village of Beauport is left behind, and we skirt an open stretch of 
field and woodland on either side. Towards the St. Lawrence," which lies broad and 
blue between us and the richly-wooded Isle of Orleans, is seen a white mansion on a 
commanding point, just above the Montmorency Falls, which was once occupied by 
the Duke of Kent. Beyond the river and the Isle of Orleans the low blue hills 
appear, while before us to the left rise the noble outlines of the Laurentians, flecked 
with passing gleams of soft light and violet shadow. If we choose to alight, 
and walk a mile or so across the fields to our left, we come to the " Natural 
Steps," a succession of rocky ledges, exactly like steps cut in the rock, between 
which the narrow river sweeps silently on, fringed by a fragrant wood of low spruce 
and hemlock, soon to brawl and foam over the brown-gray rocks in tiny cascades, 
before its final plunge. Returning again to the road, and driving on, we come to 
the wooden bridge across the river, where it dashes itself over its rocky bed, which 
the advancing summer leaves half uncovered and dry. Crossing the bridge, we drive 
some few hundred yards to the little country inn, where carriages put up to await the 
return of their passengers, who must go the rest of the way on foot. A little 
farther on is the gate to the pathway leading to the Fall, winding along the top of a 
high bank, fringed with foliage and wild flowers. Following this path we gradually 
catch a glimpse of slender, snowy streams of foam descending over the dark, rocky 
precipice. These are the outlying stragglers of the great Fall, and are as beautiful in 
themselves as some Swiss cascades, one of them looking like braided threads of molten 
silver as it falls over the jutting rocks, and another reminding the traveller of the 
Geissbach. By the time the top of the strong wooden stairs leading down the rapidly- 
descending bank is reached the upper part of the main Fall is in full view ; though not 
till we descend two-thirds of really dizzying stair, can it be realized in its entire majestj-, 
as it makes a sheer plunge, a mass of snowy foam in mad, headlong rush, down the 
precipice of 250 feet. The illustration, excellent as it is, can hardly convey a true 
idea of its majestic height as seen from one of the resting-places, about one-third of 
the distance from below, where we can best appreciate the full sweep and volume — 
partly cut off, in the illustration, by the intervening rocks. Higher than Niagara, yet 
on account of its comparatively small volume, it has nothing like the stupendous 
grandeur of that mighty cataract, but much more of picturesque beauty in its setting- 
while its greater height is emphasized by its narrower limits. 

At the head of the Fall, on either bank, stand massive stone piers, memorials of a 
tragedy which occurred there many years ago. A suspension bridge, built across the 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 



109 




LOOKING TOWARDS QUEBEC, 
From Montmorency. 

top of the Fall, had been too 
slightly constructed, and had 
not stood very long before it 

broke asunder while a habitant and his wife were crossing it in their market-cart. 
They were swept at once over the cataract, never to be seen again. The bridge 
was not rebuilt, the two piers still standing, mute monuments of the tragedy. The 
house already seen above the Fall — associated with the father of our gracious Queen 
— is a conspicuous object from the top of the stair, and the paths laid out in the 
grounds must command noble views. A part of ^e of the small cascades is used for 
turning the machinery of a saw-mill near by, but the mill itself is kept well out of 
sight. Rafts and lumber piles, however, are prominent features along the shore of the 
river as it enters the St. Lawrence. 

At the foot of the Fall the famous " Cone," an irregular mound of ice and snow, is 



TIO 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 



gradually formed, in winter, by the freezing spray. It grows till it attains a height so 
considerable that it serves as the favourite tobogganning ground of the gay people of 
Quebec, who make regular sleighing expeditions to the locality to enjoy this exhil- 
arating though somewhat dangerous Canadian sport. When the " Cone " and its 
vicinity are alive with tobogganners — the ladies dressed in bright, becoming costumes, 
some of them making the dizzy descent in a light cloud of snow, others slowly drawing 




.Mu.\ i.ml)i;l.\l.v river above kalls. 



their toboggans up the "Cone" — the scene, in its winter attire of pure, sparkling snow,, 
crusting the dark evergreens and contrasting with the rushing Fall, is at once a grand 
and pleasing one. 

We turn away reluctantly from the beautiful picture, and in a few minutes are rattling 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE in 

back along the road to Quebec. The city, as we draw near it, in the evening 
hght, appears to blaze out in a glittering sheen, every tin roof giving back the afternoon 
sunshine till the whole rock seems irradiated with a golden glor\-, in strong contrast to 
the deep tones of the hills be)'ond. Gradually the glory resolves itself into roofs and 
houses, and soon we cross Dorchester Bridge again, when, turning by a side street to 
the right, we pass through the deserted market-place outside St. John's Gate, and are 
■once more within the city, driving along St. John Street, the chief thoroughfare. 

One of the points of interest in the immediate vicinity of Quebec, is the site of the 
old hunting-lodge of the Intendant Bigot, beyond the village of Charlesbourg. Leaving 
the main road, we penetrate through a tangled thicket and reach an open glade beside 
a stream where some weather-worn walls, the remains of what is popularly called the 
Chateau Bigot, stand amid lilac and syringa bushes which still show traces of an old 
garden. There the wicked Intendant was wont to hold his carousals with his boon com- 
panions of the hunt, after the fashion described in the " Chicn d'Or." It has its legend 
of a buried hoard of silver and of a beautiful Huron eirl who loved Bieot and died a 
violent death. But apart from legend, it has a wild grace of its own, with its hoary 
vestiges of a long-past habitation, and the pine-crowned mountain rising as a noble back- 
ground behind the surrounding trees. 

Sillery is among the sacred places of Quebec, and a pilgrimage thither is one of 
the pleasantest little excursions one can make from the old city. From the deck of the 
"James," which plies on the river between Quebec and Sillery, we can look up, first to the 
old, steep houses massed under the scarped rock that shoots aloft on to Dufferin Terrace, 
Avith its watch-towers, and thence to the crowning height of the Citadel. We steam slowly 
past the brown shelving precipice of Cape Diamond, with its fringe of French houses 
and shipping ; past lumber vessels lifting huge logs from rafts in the stream, beyond 
the point where, high up on the red-brown rock we can easily read the inscription, 
"Here Montgomery fell — 1775-" Then we pass the green plains, with their broken 
ground and old earthworks and Martello towers and observatory, and the grim gaol — a 
conspicuous mass ; then a stretch of ground, covered with low vegetation, gives place to 
high-wooded banks and shades, opening, through masses of pine and oak and maple 
foliage, glimpses of pleasant country-seats. Opposite, from the curving point of Levis, 
the eye follows height after height, rich, rounded, wooded hills, at the foot of which, 
just opposite, lies the busy village of New Liverpool, with its massive and finely- 
frescoed church. 

But we must leave Sillery, with its sacred and stirring memories, and drive up the 
foliage-clad height which makes so effective a background. A gradual ascent above 
the residence, soon brings us to the level ground above, to the pretty, foliage-embowered 
St. Louis road, where w^e pass the pine-shaded glades of Mount Hermon Cemetery. 
Spencer Wood is one of the charming country residences of which we catch a passing 



ITS 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 




mmm 



iliiiita^^^^^^^^ 



QUEBEC: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 



113 



glimpse, and its bosky recesses and bright gardens are tlie scenes of many a pleasant 
fete for the beau niondc of Quebec, under the hospitable auspices of the Lieutenant- 
Governor of the day. As we draw nearer the city, cross-roads give us glimpses of 
the grand mountain landscape to the north, and of the Ste. Foye road, which leads by an 
extremely pretty drive to the Ste. Foye monument, on an open plateau on the brow of 
the cliff overhanging the valley of the St. Charles. The monument, a slender Doric 
pillar crowned by a bronze statue of Bellona, presented by Prince Napoleon on the 
occasion of his visit to Canada, commemorates the battle of Ste. Foye, between Levis 
and Murray — the final scene in the struggle between French and English for the pos- 
session of Canada — and also marks the grave of those who fell. It bears the inscription, 
'' Aux braves dc 1760, crigc par Ic Socictc St. Jean Baptistc de Ouebee, i860." 

About two and a half miles along the Ste. Foye road lies the Belmont Cemetery, 
the burying-place of the great Roman Catholic churches — the Basilica and St. Jean 
Baptiste. There, under the solemn pines, sleeps, among many of his compatriots, the 
noble and patriotic Garneau, the historian of French-Canada. With a visit to his tomb 
we may appropriately close our wanderings about this historic city. 




AUX BRAVES. 



114 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 




FALLS OF MONTMORENCY. 



SOUTHEASTERN QUEBEC 



i'5 




'^ I 






ROUGEMONT AND VALLEY. 



SOUTH-EASTERN QUEBEC. 



OTRETCHING away south-easterly from the St. Lawrence to the New England 
^^ frontier, and on other two sides bounded by the Rivers RicheHeu and Chaudiere, 
hes one of the fairest tracts of Old Canada. Formintr the core of it, lie the freeholds 
of the Eastern Townships ; and they are fringed on three sides by the old fiefs of Louis 
XIV. Altogether, there may be ten thousand square miles in the tract. A land of 
river and plain ; of mountain, and tarn, and lake, and valley ; but first and chiefly a 
river-land. Along its northern shore sweeps the mighty St. Lawrence, now deploying 



ii6 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

into a lake ten miles wide, and theo calling in his battalions for that majestic, resistless 
march to the sea. And down to the swelling tide of the St. Lawrence hasten — besides 
brooks or streams innumerable — half a dozen goodly rivers, the Richelieu, Yamaska, St. 
Francis, Nicolet, 'Becancourt, Chaudiere. Were we to climb these rivers througrh their 
beautiful winding glens, we should meet foaming rapids and dizzy cascades ; then quiet 
pools within lofty walls of verdure, and delightful shadowed reaches where speckled trout 
still linger; yet higher among the mountains we should find such romantic lakes as 
Brome, Memphremagog, Massawippi, and Megantic. 

Throughout this land, the strata have been much shaken and changed by some 
Titanic force, — seemingly steam heated beyond the scale of any pyrometer, and tortured 
under pressure which would be inadequately gauged by thousands of tons to the square 
inch. Sir William Logan traced a line of dislocation from Missisquoi Bay on Lake 
Champlain to Point Levis, along which the wrenching asunder of strata is equivalent 
to a vertical displacement of many thousands of feet. Westward of this line of 
rupture, — which we shall call Logan's Line, — the sedimentary rocks that were directly 
exposed to incandescent steam softened, rearranged their elements, and ran to a 
glassy or stony paste. Under the enormous pressure below, the surface strata presently 
cracked and sometimes opened wide. Instantly, into the cracks and fissures rushed the 
pasty rock, forming dykes of trachyte or diorite. In places, the very granite founda- 
tions of the world seem to have softened, and followed the sedimentary rocks to the 
surface. Where the ground yielded most, stately pyramids of mountain-protoplasm were 
born. It is to such throes of Mother Earth we owe the beautiful sisterhood of Belceil 
Mountain and Yamaska, Rougemont and Mount Monnoir ; the Boucherville Mountains, 
^ and Mont Royal itself. Eastward of Logan's Line, more intense still must have been 
the energy that girdled Lake Memphremagog with such soaring peaks as Mount 
Orford, Owl's Head, and Elephantis. Within historic times, some severe earthquakes 
have shaken this area, but even the most violent were gentle pastime compared 
with the elemental wars of geological antiquity. To be sure, every one was frightened 
by these earthquakes, but then no one was killed. From the records of the old Jesuit 
Mission on the St. F"rancis, we learn that on the fifth of September, 1732, the Indian 
Village was so rudely shaken as to destroy its identity ; of this " bouleversement," 
traces are still discernible on both sides of the river. More eeneral, and far more 
violent, was the famous earthquake of 1663. On the fifth of February, began a series 
of convulsions which did not quite disappear till midsummer. Land-slides occurred all 
along the river-banks, and the blue St. Lawrence ran white as far down as Tadousac. 
Every one explained the phenomenon in his own way. At Montreal, not a few con- 
sciences were smitten for having sold fire-water to the Indians. The Indians, however, 
declared that the shades of their forefathers were struggling to return to the earthly 
Hunting Grounds; and, most undutifully, they kept firing off their muskets to scare their 



SOUTHEASTERN QUEBEC 



117 




■^S-Ssf^ 



A 




BKLLEIL MOUNTAIN, FKO.M RICHELIEU KIVEK. 



unquiet sires ; for, quoth the musketeers, it's plain to see there's not game enough 
on earth for both of us ! 

Some ancient hurly-burly of the rocks has here brought within convenient reach 
a vast variety of things useful or ornamental. If you are house-building, you have 
limestone for the foundation, clay for bricks, and sand and lime for mortar ; granite for 
the lintels and window-sills, or for the whole house if you like ; magnesite for cements ; 
slate for your roof ; serpentine and verd-antique for your mantles. Then, as for 
metals, we find chromic iron at Melbourne, and in Bolton and Ham; manganese in 
Stanstead ; the copper ore of Acton has long been famous ; and gold has been found 



iiS FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

in notable quantity on the upper course of the Chaudiere, and around its fountain, 
Lake Megantic. Not even are gems altogether absent : jasper is found at Sherbrooke ; 
and beautiful little green garnets, like miniature emeralds, have been picked up in Orford. 

This land was first seen of Europeans three centuries and a half ago. Let us 
for a little view it through the keen, searching eyes of Captain Cartier, the famous 
St. Malo seaman. He had a few days ago reached Stadacona, the Indian precursor of 
Quebec. Donnacona, the Indian lord of the soil, tried to dissuade him from going 
farther ; but, laughing aside all fears and obstructions, Cartier would explore for him- 
self the great river of Hochelaga, and would see that Indian metropolis of which the 
fame had reached him down by the Gaspe shore. On the 19th of September, 
1535, leaving the two largest of his three vessels in the River St. Charles, the explorer 
pushed up stream with two boats and the Emerillon. This ship was named from the 
little falcon that in England was called the Merlin : — indeed, a craft of forty tons 
would seem to us a land-bird, rather than a bird of the ocean. Over the St. Lawrence 
now hover great sea-fowl, of more than a hundred times the Merlin s tonnage ; but 
pray remember it was the Merlin led the way. The staunch little ship had bravely 
ridden the violent storms of the outward passage ; outliving one of her consorts, she 
would return to France; and, si.x: years hence, she would again be put in commission 
for Cartier's third cruise to Canada. 

In the discoverer's party were not only weather-beaten tars of Normandy and 
Brittany, but some of the young noblesse of the court of Francis the First. There 
were Claude du Pont-Briant, — Chief Cup-bearer to the Dauphin, — Charles de la Pom- 
meraye, and others of the jeiinesse doree of that gay epoch. Their dreams were of 
romantic adventure, and, at the farther end, rich Cathay, or, as they called it, La Chine ; 
to these Argonauts La Chine was the land of the Golden Fleece, and now the)' were 
surely on the road thither. If you ascend the St. Lawrence on a sunny afternoon in the 
autumn, the chances are that you, too, may fall into some such day-dream. As the rock 
of Quebec faded from sight, the river-banks became clothed with such loveliness as 
stirred the St. Malo seaman. There were park-lands wooded with " the most beautiful 
trees in the world " ; and the trees were so trellised with vines and festooned with 
grapes that it all seemed the work of man's hand. Indeed, human dwellings now 
became numerous, and fishermen were seen taking frequent toll of the river. With 
great heartiness and good-will the natives brought their fish to Cartier's little squadron. 
Presently ' a sharp current was felt on reaching the river-elbow that now bears the 
classical name of Pointe Plalon. Just above was a sault, as yet only known or named 
of Indians, but a century later its hurrying waters would reflect the unquiet spirit 
of the time, and be called the Richelieu Rapid. It is still the custom with our sailors 
to wait for the flood-tide in taking this dangerous gateway. The little Merlin wisely 
dropped anchor. 



SOUTHEASTERN QUEBEC i'9 

" Scarce could Ara;o stem it : wherefore they, 
It being but early, anchored till mid-day. 
And as they waited, saw an eddy rise 
Where sea joined river, and before their eyes 
The battle of the waters did begin. 
So, seeing the mighty ocean best therein. 
Weighing their anchor, they made haste to man 
Both oars and sails, and therewith flying, ran 
With the first wave of the great conquering flood 
Far up the stream, on whose banks forests stood 
Darkening the swirling water on each side." 

While the French explorers still lay at anchor they were encompassed by a flotilla 
of canoes. One brought the Grand Seigneur — as Cartier calls him — of the country, which 
is now occupied by the Eastern Townships and the enclosing seigniories. His village 
on Pointe Platon was called Ochelay. By signs and gesticulations the Indian chief 
pictured the dangers of the rapid. As a conclusive proof of his sincerity, the lord 
of Ochelay offered the French commander two of his children for adoption ; and 
Cartier chose a little girl of seven or eight years. The poor mother's heart seems to 
have been ill at ease ; for, when the explorers returned to Quebec, she went down 
the river to see how it fared with her child. 

Cartier's journal and description of the Ste. Croi.x River were, two centuries and a 
half ago, read to mean that the discoverer spent the woful winter of 1535-6 under Pointe 
Platon, and that his vessels lay in the estuary of the river which enters the St. Lawrence 
from the opposite bank. So that to this day the parish on the south bank is called 
Ste. Croix, and the opposite river is called Jacques Cartier. But Champlain, in 1608, 
cleared up this question by finding near Quebec the remains of Cartier's winter en- 
campment, and three or four cannon-balls. When, despite the Convention of Susa, 
Admiral Kirkt pounced on Quebec, it set Champlain thinking that if ever he got 
Canada back, the country would have more than one bastion for its defence. Resto- 
ration having been made by the Treaty of St. Germain, the Governor set to work, in 
1633, and fortified the little island that commands the gateway of Pointe Platon, — 
calling island and fort " Richelieu," in honour of the great Cardinal who had just 
chartered the " New Company of One Hundred Associates." More than two centuries 
ago, Champlain's Fort Richelieu had already mouldered into oblivion, but river pilots 
still call the swirling water here the Richelieu Rapid. In early days the island pro- 
duced such a profusion of grapes, that Cartier's description of Orleans Island was 
misapplied to Isle Richelieu, thus completing the confusion in the discoverer's narrative. 
And this brings us back to 1535. 

After passing the rocky gateway of Pointe Platon the St. Lawrence widened, and 
then the country seemed to our Jason and his Argonauts a very land of enchantment. 



I20 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

No wonder. The genial September sun, the cloudless skies, the blue waters of the 
mighty river here gently drawing the shores miles apart ; and then the towering 
forests on either bank with their long vistas of verdure and romantic gloom, — the St. 
Malo seaman might well declare it " as fair a land as heart could desire ! " Cartier and 
his brother-in-law, Mark Jalobert, were practised pilots. With their yawls and sound- 
ing-lines they would speedily find that the channel lay half a league off the south 
bank. At times they were near enough to distinguish our native trees. There were seen 
lordly oak-forests, the memory of which is still preserved in the two Rivieres die Chhie. 
As the Merlin climbed the river, the south bank fell, and then there were stale- 
ly elms whose long tresses swayed in the breeze and toyed with the laughing 
water. Within recesses of the shore were descried wild swans swimmingr amone 
the willows. From the marshes beyond rose cranes and the great blue heron, 
disturbed in their dreams by this inauspicious Merlin, startled from their ancient 
haunts by the spectre of civilization! The young " gentilz homines" must go ashore 
and spy out this Land of Promise ; and like those who in the ancient days spied out 
Canaan, our adventurers returned from this Valley of Eshcol fairly borne down with a 
load of grapes. In their excursions they thought they had seen the sky-lark soaring 
from the meadow-land. While within the shadow of the walnut-trees, day-dreams of dear 
Old France came strong upon them, and they declared that in this New France there 
were the same sweet warblers as they many a time heard — but, alas, some of them, poor 
lads, would never hear again — in the royal parks of St. Germain and Fontainebleau, — 
linnets, and thrushes, and blackbirds; aye, and 7-^?«jz^«£'/a',—" nightingales " ! Our melo- 
dious song-sparrow was mistaken for a nightingale ; so to this hour you may hear in 
old French Canada, and in the Eastern Townships, the sweet notes of the "rossignol." 

Nine of these delightful September days were loitered away in exploring the St. Law- 
rence from the rock of Quebec to the foot of a lake into which the river now opened. 
But to many, if not most, of those gallant fellows, — '' les principatdx et bans compaignons 
q2te nozis eussions" says Cartier, brushing away a tear, — this would be their last summer 
upon earth ; then why begrudge them a few sunny hours ? Their commander called the 
water into which they now glided Lac d' Angoulhne, — doubtless after the ancestral earldom 
of Francis the First. Sixty-eight summers later, Champlain was exploring the river anev/, 
and, as he then supposed, for the first time. He reached this point on St. Peter's Day, — 
29th June, 1603, — and so from that hour to this the water has been called Lake St. Peter. 

What the earlier navigator viewed from the top of Mont Royal, Champlain ex- 
plored in detail. And first, that arrowy river which, after shooting past the towering 
Beloeil, entered Lake St. Peter. When the great Cardinal-Duke of Richelieu became 
''Chef, Grajid Maistre^ et Sur-Intendant General of French Commerce and Navigation," 
the River of the Iroquois and the archipelago at its mouth took his name; but in 
1603, and all through Champlain's narratives and maps, this water-course is Riviirc dcs 



SOUTHEASTERN QUEBEC 



121 




w^m""^^' 




lieu and St. Lawrence. 
It formed a kind of naval 
depot, and thus antici- 
pated by nearly three 
centuries the present 
river-fleets and ship-yards 
the current too strong for 



CHAMBLV— THE OLD FORT, AND CHAMBLV RAPIDS. 

Yrocois. It led directly to the land of the 
Mohawks, the most easterly of the Five 
Nations ; and, as the most easterly, the Mo- 
hawks were, in Indian 
metaphor, the "Door" of 
that "Long House "which 
stretched from the Hud- 
son to the Niagara. 

But these sprightly door- 
keepers were not content 
to stand at their arms. 
In 1603, Champlain found 
that they were preparing 
an invasion of Canada, and 
that, by way of precaution 
against them, an inclosure 
had been strongly stock- 
aded by the Algonquins at 
the junction of the Riche- 
of Sorel. As he ascended the Richelieu, Champlain, finding 
his boat, attempted to make his way along the banks : 



MONUMENT TO DE SALABERRY. 



' Through woods and waste lands cleft by stormy streams, 
Past yew-trees, and the heavy hair of pines. 
And where the dew is thickest under oaks, 
This way and that ; but questing up and down 
Thev saw no trail." 



With the aid of a light skiff, Champlain got two leagues farther, but here met 



122 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACFER 



violent rapids, which have since been levelled up by the great dam at St. Ours. For 
the present his exploration must be abandoned ; but six years later he was here 
again. He must meantime content himself with questioning the Indians as to the un- 
discovered country to the south and west. In language that he but imperfectly 
understood they told him of a chain of lakes ; and sounding through these lines of his 
narrative, we, in 1603, for the first time recognize the mighty voice of the distant 
Niagara. (// descend mi grandissime coiirant dcait. dans le did lac.^ 

At his second visit, (1609,) Champlain coasted in a more leisurely way the south 
shore of Lake St. Peter. He explored for some little distance the rivers Dupont 
(Nicolet), and Gennes (Yamaska), admiring their scenery and the luxuriant vegetation 
of their banks. The Dupont we take to have been named, seventy-four years before, 
as a compliment to Dupont-Briant, whom Cartier mentions among the young noblesse 
of his Hochelaga expedition. More than a century afterwards — probably in 1643 — 
this beautiful and romantic river was named anew; this tirne, "Nicolet," after a much 
nobler and more serviceable fellow than the Chief Cup-bearer to his Highness the 
Dauphin. By the way, our Most Serene Dauphin found a sudden death in his cups. 

Francis the First declared that his son had 
been poisoned by the contrivance of his 
great adversary, the Emperor Charles V ; 
but the cooler view of the matter is that 
the young man took cramps from gulp- 
ing down ice -water. So pass off the 
stage Dauphin, his Ganymede, and our 
River Dupont ! 
At his second visit Champlain rested two 
days at the mouth of the Richelieu. The 
Iroquois of the Mohawk Valley were making 
determined efforts to regain their ancient con- 
trol of the St. Lawrence. To the Algonquin 
tribes now in possession the arrival of a few 
French warriors was a lucky windfall. Cham- 
plain above all things desired to explore the 
countrv, and was thus beguiled into leading an 
Algonquin foray into the undiscovered land 
that lay to the south. After his party 
had heartened themselves for coming toils by 
abundant venison, fish, and game, he began the ascent of the Richelieu. It was 
early in July, 1609. On the lower river-islands oaks and walnuts towered aloft, and 
groined out into great domes of foliage. Into their shadows glided the llotilla; then 







■^T'^S 



'^ 



OLD CHURCH AT IBKRVILLE. 



SOUTHEASTERN QUEBEC 



123 




into the deeper shadows of Beloeil, which 
Champlain marked on his map as niont 
fort. Now Chambly Basin was disco\ered 
with its parquet of meadows and a rising 
amphitheatre of woods. At the farther end 
the river entered then, as now, with foam- 
ing current, throwing the beautiful lake into gentle undulations, and on its heavino- 
bosom islets of brilliant verdure shimmered like emeralds. With infinite faticrue a 
portage was made through the forest around Chambly Rapids, which are now so 
easily surmounted by the Chambly and St. Johns Canal. Above the rapids, in 
mid-river, was the island since called Ste. Therese. It is now a sunny pasturage , 
but at its discovery, in 1609, it was all a grove of what Champlain declares the 
noblest pines he had ever beheld. Thence past the site of the future St. Johns; 
and past the afterwards historic lie aux Noix; then, rounding Rouse's Point, Cham- 
plain led his flotilla of twenty-four canoes into the lake-fountain of the Richelieu. 
Altogether, a sight to stir one's blood on a bright July morning : the new-found lake 
with its glittering waters and its diadem of mountains; the wooded islands and shores 
in the full glory of their summer leafage ; the teeming life of lake and forest. And 
mark the arrowy flight of the canoes under the sweeping stroke of those swart 
athletes ! They have already bounded over the water-front of Canada, but in the 
wake of yonder canoes is following a perilous surf of border-wars. Into the undertow 
wall be drawn all who approach these waters ; — not alone Indians, but F'rench, Dutch, 
English, Americans ; and more than two centuries will pass over before these shores 
enjoy a lasting peace. But of all this our old Governor had no thought. He had 
just made his first acquaintance with a gar-pike; was remarking on its "bill" and 
vicious teeth ; was thrusting at its armour with his poniard. As he coursed down 



124 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

the lake he was much engrossed with the magnificent scenery on either hand. To 
the west lay the Adirondacks, the ancient homestead of the Algonquin warriors who 
were his companions. Their forefathers deserted that picturesque wilderness for 
the gentler shores of Hochelaga, driving before them the then unwarlike Iroquois, 
whom Cartier had found fishing, corn-planting, and road-making. Contrasting their 
own better fare with that of improvident and often famished Algonquins, the 
Iroquois had nicknamed them Adirondacks, — " Bark-Eaters." Once in Canada, the 
Adirondacks became fused into the other Algonquin tribes that occupied the banks of 
the Ottawa ; but the ancient nickname still happil)' adheres to their old mountain 
home. Through Emerson's muse those peaks have won a name in literature, as well 
as on maps ; but on that morning, and long afterwards, they were "Titans without 
muse or name." Then away on his left Champlain saw the soaring peaks of the 
Green Mountains, which, through the French verts inonts, have eiven name to the State 
of Vermont, The discoverer remarked, though a July sun was shining, that their 
summits were white with snow. His Canadian Avarriors sighted the Iroquois one 
night at ten o'clock, and dawn brought an encounter on the headland which after- 
wards became historic as Crown Point. Champlain and his two French soldiers 
shared the fray, and then, for the first time, these solitudes heard the sound of fire- 
arms. Loaded with four slugs and fired into a crowd at thirty paces, their arqiiebuses 
scattered the Mohawks like wild pigeons. While the panic lasted Champlain hurried 
down the lake, and back to the St. Lawrence. To commemorate his discovery and ad- 
venture, the lake was by himself named Champlain. He was by no means of the 
mind to give alms to oblivion : his wife's name is preserved in St. Helen's Island ; 
and the river St. Francis once bore his father's name, Antoine, though by 1685 the 
old sea-captain had already lost his grip on fame, and the river had passed over to 
the patron saint of the Abenakis Indians. 

Among Champlain's contemporaries was Jean Nicolet, who never rose to be 
archon, but yet became cponynms of lake, river, town, and county in the tract we are 
describing. A native of Cherbourg, he emigrated to Canada when young to become 
an interpreter. Utterly devoid of fear, he lived eleven years among the Indians, 
and took a full share of every danger and hardship. Of this life nine )ears were 
spent among the Nipissings, that nation of wizards. Henceforward, Nicolet himself 
was a wizard. By the sorcery of fair dealing, and by the enchantment of truthful 
words, he gained a most extraordinary ascendancy over the native races, and became 
the great peace-maker of his time. He composed for the remainder of his life the old 
deadly feud between Algonquin and Iroquois. He had given these wild men "medi- 
cine" to make them love him; it was his limpid honesty of speech and purpose. In 
only one extraordinary emergency did he add scenic effects; and. mark )-ou, he was 
then on a foreign embassy. The Hurons had become embroiled with a tribe on the 



SOUTHEASTERN QUEBEC 



12 = 




._..,.. ^j' 






V^' 






.1 -.^ ]^^3t^ 



1 I ,'"iv" .Jfi--" 





OWL'S HEAD, PROM MOUiNTAIN HOUSE. 



farther shore of Lake Michi- 
gan, and all the horrors of 
savage warfare were im- 
pending. To heal the 
breach, Nicolet was sent 
to that undiscovered land 
where dwelt the " Gens de 
Mer," as the French then 



1 

i 






OWL'S HEAD, FROM LAKE MEMPHREMAGOG. 



126 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 




called them. Full of 

i the dream of the time, 

Jean thought "Mer" 
must be the Chinese Sea ; and to caparison himself for an interview with the 
Mandarins, he bought a robe of Chinese damask, embroidered in colours with a 
wild profusion, of birds and flowers. Father Vimont's description of this droll outfit 
was evidently written after a near view ; and, between the lines, you can hear the 
worthy father chuckling at the bare thought of it. Arrived on the farther shore 
of Lake Michigan, honest Jean set up, as an earnest of peace and good-will, two 
Christmas-trees, laden with gifts. He then harnessed himself into his Chinese flower- 
garden and aviary. But, doubting how the Mandarins of Green Bay might re- 
ceive him, he took in each hand one of the tremendous pistols of that era, and, send- 
ing forward his Huron companions, advanced towards the yet unseen metropolis. 
The nerves of the Winnebago ladies were unequal to the strain thus cast upon them : 
they ran from wigwam to witrwam, screaming, "A boeie is comino-, thunderbolt in each 
hand!" This startling prelude over, Nicolet got together the chiefs, and soon won 
them over to friendship with the Hurons. After "planting the Tree of Peace," and 
throwing earth on the buried tomahawks, he returned to his home at Three Rivers. 
Though Nicolet did not reach the Chinese Sea, he had found the Wisconsin River, 
and all but found the Mississippi. Indeed, Mr. Gilmary Shea awards him the honour 
of first discover)'. 

Seven or eight years after this, Nicolet, then at Quebec, received urgent word 
from Governor Montmagny that the Algonquins at Three Rivers had captured 



SOUTHEASTERN QUEBEC 



127 



a Sokoki Indian, and were about to burn him alive. A storm was raging on the St. 
Lawrence, but instantl\- Nicolet was down to the river, entreating the owner of a 
shallop to put out. They had passed the mouth of the Chaudiere, and were abreast 
of Sillery when the craft was blown over, and Nicolet was swept down the river. The 
survivor reported that the drowning man's thoughts were not of himself, but of his 
wife and daughter. So, onward ! thou simple, heroic soul, past the River of Death 
and the Great Gulf, to the Shoreless Ocean ! 

To a modern tourist who enters Canada for the first time by the route of Lake 
Champlain, there is something very startling in the sudden change of names as he passes 
from New York or Vermont to the valley of the Richelieu. With his usual artistic 
vividness, Thoreau expresses the effect produced on his mind : — " To me coming from 
New England it appeared as Normandy itself, and realized much that had been heard 
of Europe and the Middle Ages. Even the names of the humble Canadian villages 
affected me as if they had been those of the renowned cities of antiquity. To be told 
by a habitant, when I asked the name of a village in sight, that it is .S7. Fcrcol or Ste. 
Annc^ the Guardian Angel, or the Holy St. Joscplis ; or of a mountain that it was 
Belangc or St. Hyacintlic ! As soon as we leave the States these saintly names begin. 
St. Johns is the first town you stop at, and henceforth the names of the mountains, 




,\1(jL'.\1 



128 rRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

and streams, and villages reel, if I may so speak, with the intoxication of poetry : 
Chambly, Longueuil, Pointe-aux-Trembles, Barthelemi, etc., as if it needed only a 
little foreign accent, a few more liquids and vowels perchance in the language to 
make or locate our ideals at once. I began to dream of Provence and the Trouba- 
dours." 

So far the Hermit of Walden. But underlying what he calls "saintly names," 
there was in the Richelieu Peninsula a fervent military feudalism. Through this 
cassock gleamed a steel cuirass. Though the splendid illusions of the Old Regime 
have long since faded, the haughty names of that epoch still kindle with an after- 
glow. By the mere names of these villages, towns, and seigniories, you may conjure 
back Louis Ouatorze and Versailles ; the state-craft of Colbert ; the soldiers of 
Turenne and Vauban. Picketed around the ancient rendezvous at the confluence of 
the Richelieu and St. Lawrence are the officers of the Carienan-Salieres, as thoueh 
still guarding the Iroquois River-Gate and the approaches to Montreal : — Captain 
Berthier, Lieutenant Lavaltrie ; Boucher, Varennes, Vercheres, Contrecceur. Twilight 
in these ancient woodlands awakens sleeping echoes and dead centuries ; with the ris- 
ing night-wind the whole place seems 

"Filled as with shadow of sound, with the pulse of invisible feet." 

Through the forest aisles ring out elfin trumpet-calls ; we hear the r&oeilU of ghostly 
drums beating; the prancing of phantom horses; the clinking of sabres; the measured 
tread of Louis the F"ourteenth's battalions. At roll-call we hear officers answer to fami- 
liar names: — "Captain Sorel?" — "Here!" — "Captain St. Ours?" — "Here!" — "Captain 
Chambly?" — "Here!" — And in good truth most of them are still here. In the soft 
grass of God's Acre they are resting, surrounded by those faithful soldiers who In 
death, as In life, have not deserted them. Together these veterans fought the Turk 
in Hungary, and drove him into the Raab ; together they chased the Iroquois up the 
Richelieu, and down the Mohawk Valley ; and, after van and rear had passed a 
darker valley and an icier flood, they mustered here at last in eerie bivouac together. 
During the summer and autumn of 1665 the soldiers of the Carignan-Salieres 
may have been seen working like beavers along the banks of the Richelieu, cutting 
down trees and casting up earthworks. By the following year a line of five forts had 
been completed, — Richelieu (Sorel), St. Louis (Chambly), St. Therese, St. Jean, St. 
Anne. The first, occupying the site of the Chevalier Montmagny's old fort, com- 
manded the motith of the river; the last commanded the outlet of Lake Champlain, 
and stood on the Island still called La Motte after the Captain who tllrected the 
work. With this bridle of forts well In hand, Louis XIV hoped to rein in the wild 
Iroquois, just as the Wall of Severus was meant as a snaftle for the wild Caledonian. 



SOUTHEASTERN QUEBEC 129 

Settlements of the legionaries and their captains were formed behind the Roman 
Wall ; so our centurions and their soldiers occupied seigniories and fiefs under cover 
of these river-forts. 

The officers' sons and daughters inherited the high spirit of their race, and were 
often remarkable for adventurous and heroic qualities. Lieutenant Varennes married 
little Marie Boucher, daughter of a brother officer, who was then Governor of Three 
Rivers. One of their sons was that Ensign Varennes de Verendrye, who, fighting 
like a lion under Marshal Villars at Malplaquet, was left for dead on the field, but 
revived nevertheless, and was consoled for his nine wounds with a lieutenancy, and 
returned to Canada ; next we hear of him on Lake Nipigon ; then on the Kaminis- 
tiquia ; now he has reached Lake Winnipeg, is building a fort, and is floating the 
first fleitr dc lis on those waters ; is the first to explore the Saskatchewan ; is the 
first to behold the Rocky Mountains. And what school-child in Canada has not read 
or heard of Madeleine Vercheres, who, at fourteen years of age, beat off the Iroquois 
from her father's fort, and for a whole week maintained her vigil on the bastion until 
help came up from Quebec ? 

The first commandant and seigneur of Chambly seems to have left his heart in 
France, for he made over his whole estate to Mademoiselle Tavenet, — to be hers at 
once if she shared his fortunes in Canada ; in any case, to become hers after his 
death. The charming Tavenet preferred to wait ; but it is doubtful whether the estate 
ever reached her. A few words more will dispose of the gallant Jacques Chambly : 
appointed by Frontenac to the chief command "as a most efficient, and as the oldest 
ofiicer in the country"; promoted by Louis XIV to the Governorship of Acadie ; 
captured one hot August day at the mouth of the Penobscot, after being shot down 
in defending Fort Pentagouet against a St. Domingo pirate ; held for ransom at 
Boston ; ransomed by Frontenac at his private charge ; appointed to Martinique, where, 
let us hope. Governor Chambly recovered from his St. Domingo acquaintance the 
amount of Frontenac's bill of exchange. A little more than a century later, there was 
serving at Martinique another seigneur of Chambly, who was to become the most 
distinguished of them all, — Charles de Salaberry. In the West Indies he early exhib- 
ited the courasfe and resource which afterwards won for him and his Canadian 
Voltigeurs such renown at Chateaugay. Yet with might, mercy; and here he had 
before his mind not only the family motto, but the example of his old Basque ancestor, 
whose feats on the battle-field of Coutras were so tempered with mercy, that Henry 
of Navarre gave him that chivalrous device, Force a siiperbe; mercy a faible, — " Might 
for the arrogant ; mercy for the fallen ! " 

But, besides the Richelieu, there were other water-ways leading over to the St. 
Lawrence, any one of which might serve the Mohawk raider. If the Yamaska 
approached too near the soldiers' homes of the Richelieu Valley, there were still other 



I30 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

rivers in reserve, — notably the St. Francis. To close at a stroke all these flood-gates 
of Iroquois invasion, Frontenac conceived the bold project of throwing across the 
whole country, from the Yamaska to the Chaudiere, the warlike Algonquin tribe of 
Abenakis, who, while close friends of the French, were, from their very lineage, at 
deadly feud with the Iroquois. Though once lords of nearly ten thousand square 
miles, and the terror of New England, the Abenakis are now almost extinct. A mere 
handful — descendants of the few that escaped Rogers' Rangers — still linger near the 
moiith of the St. Francis. Within their former domain, the Abbe Maurault, who has 
devoted nearly a lifetime to these Indians and their annals, can discover but three 
words of Abenaki origin : — Coaticook, " The Stream of the Pine-Land "; Mcinphremagog, 
"The Great Sheet of Water"; Rlcgantic, "The Resort of Fish." A movement of the 
Abenakis into the region west of the Chaudiere began in December, 1679, and 
embraced Indians of two contiguous tribes, — the Etchemins and Micmacs, — all three 
being described by the French as Nations Abcnakiscs. Henceforth the Abenakis 
remained close allies of France. Ghastly reprisals were made on New England for 
the scalping-raids of the Iroquois into Canada. Horror succeeded horror. The 
Massacre of Lachine w^as more than avenged by the atrocities of Schenectady, Deer- 
field, and Haverhill. 

At Haverhill these avenging furies were led by J. B. Hertel de Rouville, who 
regarded his father's hand — mutilated and burnt by Iroquois torturers — as his suf- 
ficient commission. He was the first lord of Belceil Mountain, and of that lovely 
mountain-lake which Frechette calls iin joyan tombc d'lin ccriii fantastiqiic, — "a sapphire 
dropped from fairy casket." His seigniory included the romantic Rougemont Valley 
which separates Rougemont Mountain from Belceil. Swooping from his eyry, Rouville's 
beak and talons were at the heart of New England before the approach of a war- 
party was dreamt of. Iberville, the vis-a-vis of St. Johns on the Richelieu, takes its 
name from him who not only became a distinguished navigator, and the founder of 
Louisiana, but who, in earlier life, had unhappily been foremost in the midnight attack 
on Schenectady. For nearly a century this merciless and revolting border-war con- 
tinued, until in the end the battle-field was shared by England and France, and the 
armies of Amherst and Montcalm were at each other's throats. The old war-trail 
of the Richelieu, which conducted Champlain, and Courcelles, and De Tracy against 
the Iroquois, now led French regiments up to Crown Point, Ticonderoga, and William 
Henry ; or, with a different fortune of war, might lead English troops down to Mon- 
treal. Even the pacification of 1763 brought but brief rest to this border-land. \\\\\\ 
the outbreak of the Revolutionary War came Montgomer)''s Invasion b\- the Richelieu, 
and the capture of Forts St. John and Chambl)'. Simultaneously. Arnold undertook 
his memorable winter-march of nearly 600 miles up the Kennebec and down the 
Chaudiere. 



I 



SOUTH E.hSTERN QUEBEC 



^^^^^^^^mmjimmssmm:, 





LAKE MASSAWIPPI, 
AND VALLLY 



\\\t\\ the 
Peace of 17S3, the pio- 
neer's axe began once 
more to rinq- out amon'-T 
*- these river- valleys. 

Within a romantic bend 
of the Yamaska, — "The 
Rush-floored River," as the Indian 
name is interpreted, — a hamlet 
took root which has grown into the very 
pretty cathedral-town or city of St. Hya- 
cinthe. Notre-Dame of Montreal has here 
been reproduced in miniature, together with Hotel- 
Dieu and other ecclesiastical foundations. The Jesuit 
College is remarkable for its equipment as well as extra- 



132 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

ordinary size. Academies under Protestant auspices are also in full activity. Indeed, 
this beautiful river-nook, with its shadowy pine groves and the restful murmur of the 
water, seems to have been by Nature set apart for study and contemplation. Matins 
and even-song here pealed through the rood-loft of great pines, ages before the swelling 
oro-an of church or cathedral was heard. Even now the Genius of the Forest lingers 
despite the rumble and outcry of two railways. Still ascending the river, we pass 
Mount Yamaska, and, after resting at the village of Granby, climb to a dark valley 
walled in on the north by Shefford Mountain, and by the Brome Mountains on the 
south. In Brome Lake the fountain-head of the Yamaska is reached, — a romantic 
sheet of water, with the village of Knowlton near the south end. 

Here leave the basin of Yamaska, and cross over to Memphremagog and Massa- 
wippi, lake-fountains of the St. Francis. A mountain-road clambers through Bolton 
Pass, and then races down to the shore of Lake Memphremagog. From the heights 
we look out upon scenes of many a wild expedition, romantic or tragic. Yonder is 
the lake-o-ateway through which the fierce Abenakis so often carried desolation to the 
heart of Massachusetts. It was through those maple woods, on our west flank, that 
Roo-ers' Rangers, in 1759, swept like a whirlwind of flame, to exterminate the whole 
brood of tigers that had so long harried the homes of New England. Many the law- 
less adventure of love and war in the old days of Partizan and Ranger, who often 
helped out the glamour of romance by picturesque finery or Indian costume. Now 
you may wander at will amid the wildest of this magnificent scenery, without other 
adventure than the rough salute of the mountain-air, that " chartered libertine " : — : 

But here how often rides the Ranger-Wind ! 

To trembling aspens he now lisps of love, 

Or grieving balsam- firs to tears will move ; 
Tragic his tale the pallid birches find ; 
He, envious, sees the wooded peaks reclined 

On the sweet bosom of the Lake ; nor frown 

Of darkling Orford heeds, but blusters down 
The echoing pass, a plume of mist to bind 
On scowling brow, carbine with lightning fill ; 

He decks him in rain-fringes tagged with hail. 
In ribbons of flying cloud ; then whistles shrill,— 

Snorting leaps forth the war-horse of the gale ! 
Wild Centaur-clouds in wheeling squadrons form. 
And o'er tlie border sweeps the Ranger-Storm ! ' 

Lake Memphremagog is brought within three hours of Montreal by the South- 
Eastern Railway. After six minutes of darkness in the great tube of Victoria Bridge, 
we recover speed with sunlight, and strike away for the Richelieu, which is crossed 



SOUTHEASTERN QUEBEC 



133 



iv. 






w^.<-^M^\ 






#, 



%^' 



ii>\ 






.'!'■*- 



^ V, k h 










-;?jsr-r;»vr'J"tWvJ" 



x-^^^lh^ 



t 

ji^ 








a: 
1 




■}^^,^/"^ j^gg -...->' jv -o-j ^'''^.'':2lff:^...^g-^v-J,^^^/^/^:^'^'^-^ 



BOLTON PASS. 



134 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 



^fr( 




"F- 



SHERBROOKfc. 



COMMERCIAL STREET. 



within view of Chambly Basin and the old 
Fort. Touching the Yamasl<;a at West Farn- 
ham, we cHmb the water -shed of Brome. 
Thence, descend the valley of the Missisquoi 
River, winding through its lovely glens and 
past the southern Pinnacle Mountain, and Hawk 
and Bear Mountains, to Newport at the \'er- 



SOUTHEASTERN QUEBEC 135 

mont end of Lake JNIemphreinagog. A third of the way down this most romantic 
water the boat-whistle apprises us that we are crossing the 45th parallel, our Interna- 
tional Boundary. Then, for twenty miles northward, a perspective of noblest scenery. 
The west shore is embossed with lofty cones — Canadian kindred of the Green Moun- 
tains — the highest of the coves being Mount Orford, 4,500 feet. Owl's Head springs 
from the water's edge 2,700 feet into the air. Between this venerable owl-haunt and 
the sculptured profile of Elephantis you sail over a still unsounded abyss, which baffled 
Sir Hugh Allan and his sea-line of 1,200 feet. Yonder, on the opposite headland, is 
that old sea-king's Chateau ; for, in the swelter of summer, it was his custom to rest 
here from the care of his fleets, and brace his nerves with "the wine of mountain air." 
When we reach the lake-outlet at Magog we seem to be in the immediate presence of 
Orford, though the mountain stands back a few miles from the shore. From the 
summit, in clear weather, a most magnificent view is had : Mount Royal, and all the 
mountain-peaks from the Richelieu to the Chaudiere ; Lake Memphremagog, its beau- 
tiful sister, Massawippi, and a score of other lakes ; the Arcadian landscape of the 
Eastern Townships ; and, beyond their southern frontier, the Green Mountains of 
Vermont, and the White Mountains of New Hampshire. 

Not the least delicious bits of scenery in the Eastern Townships lie in the valley 
of the St. Francis. Among the farmsteads and rich herds of Compton and Stanstead 
winds the deep chasm of the Coaticook. Of Compton you would say, — "Just the 
nook that a contemplative naturalist might choose for writing a Shepherd's Calendar / " 
So thought Philip Henry Gosse before you, and settled here amid the "martial alarms 
and stormy politics" of 1837-8. It will soon be a half-century since he haunted 
these glens and woodlands. In an excursion to Sherbrooke we need no longer hope 
to find a moose, nor fear to meet a gigantic gray wolf ; mill-wheels and factories on 
the Coaticook and Magog have frightened away many of the fish of pioneer days ; but 
in bird, insect, and wild-flower, and in the Spring ferns, flushing with sweet verdure, 
may be seen the descendants of those which sat to the gentle naturalist for their 
portraits, and, "amid the fatigues of labour, solaced him with simple but enchanting 
studies." 

Rising in Lake St. Francis, and expanding into Lake Aylmer, the St. Francis is 
joined at Lennoxville by the Massawippi, which brings the tribute of the Coaticook 
and other streams, as well as the overflow of Lake Massawippi. Overlooking this 
meeting of waters at Lennoxville, and surrounded by a landscape of rare loveliness, 
is the University of Bishop's College, with its pretty Chapel and Collegiate School. 
The friends of Bishop's College, undisheartened by repeated fires, have not only 
restored the buildings, but extended them, and provided anew a good working library. 
Among literary donations is a sumptuous facsimile of the Codex Sinaiticus, from the 
Emperor of Russia. Above and below Lennoxville, the St. Francis lingers among 



136 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 




some sweet scenery ; the 

stillness of the river here 

is in striking contrast to 

the rude concourse at 

Sherbrooke, where the Magog dashes wildly 

down a steep incline, bringing the overflow 

of Lakes Magog and Memphremagog. 

The hill-slopes of Sherbrooke are con- 
spicuous several miles off, and glitter in 
the sun with their Cathedral, College, and 
Church-spires. To the early Jesuits the 
site was familiar, for the St. Francis was 
the old water-way from New England to 
Three Rivers and Quebec. The local an- 
nals have been collected by Mrs. C. M. 
Day and by the Rev. P. Girard, Superior 
of the St'tm'nairc Sf. Charlcs-Borromde. 

Just above its confluence with the St. 
Francis, the river Maeoo- descends a hun- 
dred and fourteen feet in little more than 
half a mile. The inevitable saw-mill, and 
SPRING FERNS. grist-mill, and cardino-mill appeared at the 

beginning of the present centur)- ; and 
around this nucleus a hamlet gathered, which, in 1817, was visited and paternally 
adopted by the Governor, Sir Jolin Sherbrooke. A distinct impulse was given to its 
growth when Sherbrooke became headquarters for the British-American Land Com- 
pany, which, chartered in 1833, was a prime instrument in opening out the beautiful 
wilderness of the Eastern Townships. In its boundless water-power, and in the fertilit)- 



SOUTHEASTERN QUEBEC 



^Zl 



of the district, Sherbrooke has enduring resources. Its manufactures are already very 
extensive, some of the factories reaching the size of villages. The educational insti- 
tutions are well-equipped and efficient. Commercial Street is the chief thoroughfare. 
At the farther end, the street fades into a perspective of pretty villas. Melbourne 
Street makes a delightful promenade, with its fine residences and flower-gardens, and. 
its charming river-views. 

Throughout the Eastern Townships, but most of all in Missisquoi, Stanstead, and 
Compton, there is a robust strain of the early Massachusetts pioneer. At the epoch 
of the Great Divide, not a few Loyalists followed the old flag, and settled a little 
beyond the " Province Line." Picking up the disused axe with a sigh — often with a 
secret tear — they once more hewed out for themselves homes in the forest. They 
brought across the frontier, with their old Hebrew names, the pith and industry, and 
intense earnestness of the Puritan. They transplanted to Canadian soil that old farm- 
life of New England, which, by its quaint ways, has stirred so many delightful fancies 
in American novelists and poets. Such fire-light pictures and winter-idylls as Hawthorne 
and Whittier love to paint, were here to be seen of a winter evening in every snow- 
bound farmstead. Among the dusty heirlooms of these Township homesteads may 
still be found andirons that stood on early New England hearths. Burned out 
and fallen to ashes are the last forestick and back-log ; and so are that brave old 
couple who, in their gray hairs, wandered into the Canadian wilderness, and. with 
trembling hands, hung the old crane over a new hearth. , * 







138 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 










LAKE MEMPHREMAGOG, FROM OWL'S Hi;,- 



\1). 



MONTREAL: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 



139 




A GLIMPSE FROM THE MOUNTAIN 

MONTREAL 



T 



HERE is no more beau- iji'.rSft1i 
tiful city on the continent fV-5f 



of America than the commer- 
cial metropolis of the Dominion of Canada. The geographical features of the place at 
once suo-o-est a city. Ocean-going steamers can navigate the river St. Lawrence no 
farther inland, but here, where insuperable difficulties stop navigation, nature has made 
it possible for human skill to produce a magnificent harbour. Lying between the 



140 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 




I - 






JMONTREAL: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTHE 



141 







,■> I T^ 



river and Mount Royal, rarely has It been the good fortune of 
any city to have so fine a background. The fiat part, situated 
at the base by the river side, makes it easy for business ; 
the sloping sides of the mountain are intended, perhaps, to 
f'/' 1%? meet the modern idea that prosperity 

•^ V '^c' shall build in the west end, and 

[4/f ^' '«■ "'^"^^T abundance in some overlook- 

ing heights That which was 
natural happened , the 
city has extended west- 
ward and along 




the mountain side 
— that is to say, 
wealth used its un- 
doubted right to 
erect its dwelling- 
places up the river 
where the water 
is clear, and up the moun- 
tain where the air is pure. 
Reaching the cit} by 
way of the St. Lawrence, 
the eye rests upon a scene 
of rare beauty ; three miles 
of 



river frontage turned 



into wharves ; shipping of 
every kind and description, 
from the enormous steam- 
ship to the tiny pleasure 
yacht ; back of that, long 
lines of warehouses ; then, 
great public and private buildings, church 
spires and towers asserting their right 
to be higher than all other structures, 
and thus bid the busy world pause at 
times and look up. But the finest view of the city can be had from the mountain. 



142 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

The top is reached by a winding path or, if the traveller choose, by steps suggestive 
of lungs and nerves, and a swimming head and deatli by falling. The view from the 
summit, however, is well worth the climb, whichever way may be chosen. The city 
lies at the base ; the majestic St. Lawrence may be traced for miles. Just opposite it 
is spanned by the great Victoria Bridge, one mile and three-quarters long, built by 
Stephenson and Brunei, and opened by the Prince of Wales in 1861. Beyond the 
river is a vast stretch of land absolutely flat, bounded by ranges of hills among which, 
conspicuous, rise the twin mountains of St. Hilaire. 

Montreal abounds with striking contrasts. The city is comparatively small — 
less than one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants — as what was called "the census" 
has declared. It has had only one or two hundred years of history ; and yet every- 
thing is here — the antique and the modern — Vi^hile hostile oddities lie cheek-by-jowl 
on every hand. Here are frame houses, some of them scarcely better than an 
Irishman's hovel on his native bog, and ignorance and squalour and dirt ; close at 
hand are great streets of great houses, all of fine-cut stone. Here are thousands of 
French who cannot speak one word of English, and thousands of English who cannot 
speak one word of French. Unthrift and thrift come along the same thoroughfares. 
Some are content with a bare existence and some are not content with colossal for- 
tunes. In social life we have the old French families with their Old World refinement 
pressed upon and almost pushed out of existence by the loud manners of the noitveatix 
riches. The older houses have their heirlooms of gold trinkets and silver plate ; the 
new houses have their art galleries of elaborate picture-frames, the meanest of which 
would honour Cellini, and gladden the eyes and heart of a solid Manchester man. 

We have the same striking contrasts in the appearance of the people on the streets. 
Here are unmistakable descendants of the ancient Iroquois Indians; at a turn we come 
upon a company who, by their dress and talk, take us back to the peasant classes of 
older France ; while crowding everywhere are ladies and gentlemen of the most approved 
modern type, according to the fashions of London, Paris, and New York. The 
business of the place shows the same quaint differences. At one market we are in 
an exclusively agricultural district ; there is nothing to suggest a ship, a warehouse, or a 
factory ; buyers and sellers are country people with country ways, except that now and 
then a lady from the more aristocratic parts ventures to go a-marketing in the interests 
of economy. Our illustration represents what may be seen in one of the principal 
squares of the city on a market day. All the streets round the Bonsecours Market 
are crowded with carts filled with country produce, and the overflow finds its 
way into Jacques Cartier Square. The horses feeding peacefully as they would 
beside a country hostelry, primitive carts and harness, the habitant piously com- 
mitting his horse or his basket to the care of God while he slips into the old 
church to say a prayer, are not the pictures one expects to find in a great city 



MONTREAL: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 



143 




in the restless New World. A 
very little way to the west, you 
are in a different latitude. Signs of 
commerce and modern taste and 
industrial life abound. Here is a 
corner where we look into Victoria 
Square. The crowded streets, the 
magnificent cut-stone shops, hotels 
and warehouses, the well-appointed 
hall and rooms of the Young 
Men's Christian Association — the 
oldest Association of the kind in 
America, — the beautiful Kirk, Sal- 
isbury Cathedral in miniature, the 
bronze statue of the Queen by 
' Marshall Wood, all reflect the nine- 
teenth century. What surprises the 
visitor is the sharp distinction so 
long maintained. The new does 

o 

not shoulder the ancient out of the way-does not even modify it. They move along 
parr.llel lines, neither affecting the other. There is no fusion of races in commer- 



BONSECOURS CHURCH. 



144 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 




K 

< 

C 
en 

w 

< 
U 

en 

W 

a 
o 



in 
w 
z 

w 

W 
S 



MONTREAL: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIJ'E 



145 




V-.^ 



cial, social or political life ; the i 
differences are sharply defined, j 
and appear to be permanent. li- 
lt must be confessed that this 1 
adds to the interest of the m, 
city, and enables the curious U 
to study human life and work 

under a variety of aspects. But we must turn now to a closer description of 
people and places and their history. 

The history of Montreal is an eventful one, and full of interest. The site was first 
visited by Jacques Cartier, the discoverer of Canada, on the 2d October, 1535. The 
Algonquin village of twelve hundred inhabitants was then named Hochelaga, and the 
Frenchman was well received, supplies of fish and maize being freely offered in return 



146 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

for beads, knives, small mirrors and crucifixes. Hochelaga was, even in those days, a 
centre of importance, having eight or ten settlements subject to it. Nothing more was 
heard of it, however, till 1611, when Champlain left Quebec for Hochelaga, with the 
intention of establishing there a trading-station. Temporary structures were erected, 
ground was cleared and seeds were sown, in order to test the fertility of the soil. 
Before returning to Quebec, Champlain held conferences with many Indians — Hurons and 
Algonquins — who had come to meet him in the neighbourhood of the present Lachine 
Rapids. Two years later, Champlain visited Hochelaga again, and pushed forward 
up the river Ottawa as far as Lake Nipissing. It was not, however, till 1640 
that a permanent establishment was attempted on the island of Montreal. In that year 
a society, designated " La Compagnie de Montreal," was formed in Paris for the 
promotion of religion in the colony. This Company consisted of about thirty persons 
of wealth, who proposed to build a regular town and protect it against the Indians by 
means of fortifications. Maisonneuve, a distinguished and pious soldier from Cham- 
pagne, was chosen to lead the expedition and direct the Company. The sanction of 
the King of France having been obtained, priests and families were sent out, and on 
the 17th of May, 1642, Villemarie was solemnly consecrated. The spot chosen for the 
ceremony was near the foot of the mountain. 

Maisonneuve was a great man, knightly in bearing, brave as a lion and devout as 
a monk. Among his most efficient colleagues was d'Aillebout, who was subsequently 
twice Governor of New France. During the first few years the colony of Villemarie 
barely managed to subsist, being constantly exposed to the incursions of Indians. On 
one occasion, in 1652, a small band of Frenchmen defeated a body of two hundred 
Iroquois in the immediate neighbourhood of Montreal. The following year Maisonneuve 
returned from France with three vessels and upwards of a hundred soldiers. In 1663, 
an important event occurred, the "Company of Montreal" having sold their rights to 
the Seminary of Montreal, who have ever since been the seigniors of the island and 
associated with every incident of its history. In 1672 the population of Montreal had 
reached the figure of 1500, and a few years later the place began to be laid out into 
streets within a quadrangular g53ace surrounded by a wall. About the same time the 
village of Laprairie, on the opposite side of the river, was founded by a number of 
converted Iroquois, and later they migrated a little farther up to Caughnawaga, where 
their descendants survive to this day. 

The Iroquois were the allies of the English of the New England Colonies and the 
Dutch on the Hudson, as the Hurons were of the French of Canada; and the wars 
between these two savage nations naturally involved their white friends. lu. 1690 an 
expedition, consisting of two hundred French and Indians, set out from Montreal on 
snow-shoes, and fell upon a Dutch settlement at Schenectady, putting all therein to 
fire and sword. In retaliation, a force of thirteen hundred men, under General Winthrop 



MONTREAL: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 147 

and Major Schuyler, was equipped for a movement upon Montreal, by the way of Lake 
Champlain, while a fleet was dispatched against Quebec under the command of Sir 
William Phipps. The former accomplished nothing, owing to the difficulties of the 
march, and were easily repulsed ; while the defeat of the latter by Frontenac is one of 
the most brilliant pages of the history of New France. In 1700-01 a great peace was 
concluded at Montreal between the Iroquois on the one hand, and the Hurons, Ottawas, 
Abnakis, and Algonquins on the other. This did not prevent works of defence being 
carried on, and in 1722 a low stone wall was erected, with bastions and outlets, extending 
all around the town. The population of Montreal at that time was three thousand. 
The fortifications, however, were available only against the Indians, and were not calcu- 
lated to withstand artillery, as the events of fifty years later clearly proved. In 1760, 
after the fall of Quebec and the unsuccessful attempt of Levis to recover that strong- 
hold, Montreal became the last station of P>ench power in America, and it is therefore 
indissolubly connected with the closing events of the Conquest. The British plan of 
campaign was to hem Montreal in from every side. With that view. General Murray 
moved up from Quebec, while Colonel Haviland advanced his army, composed of three 
thousand regulars and provincials, with a small body of Indians, from Crown Point on 
Lake Champlain, and up the Richelieu. On his side Sir Jeffrey Amherst, the Com- 
mander-in-Chief, set out from Albany and passed through the Iroquois country, now the 
State of New York, as far as Oswego, where he took boats to transport his men across 
the lower part of Lake Ontario and down the St. Lawrence. When he reached Lachine, 
Haviland had already occupied the south shore of the river opposite the city, and Murray 
was master of the territory extending to the foot of the island. Levis had fired his 
last musket, Vaudreuil had exhausted all his diplomacy, and there only remained to be 
enacted the final scene of Capitulation whereby the fairest colony of France was trans- 
ferred to Great Britain. It has never been definitely ascertained at what particular spot 
this impressive historical event took place. Most historians locate it at the Chateau de 
Ramezay, on Notre Dame Street, the official residence of Marquis de Vaudreuil, 
Governor and Lieutenant-General. There is a local tradition, however, that the Articles 
of Surrender were signed in a small frame house, on the Cote des Neiges road, behind 
the mountain, which was unfortunately destroyed by fire only a few years ago. It is not 
necessary to trace the general history of the city from this point of the Conquest down 
to our day. It will suffice to say that from 1760 to 18 10, Montreal was little better 
than a frontier outpost, and an emporium of the trade of peltries with the Indians. 
In the succeeding decade, the North-West was explored by a number of hardy adven- 
turers — the Selkirks, MacTavishes and others penetrated into the wilderness ; the North- 
West Company multiplied its stations throughout the Red River valley, and Montreal 
became the headquarters of all these mighty traders. There are episodes in this period 
of the history of Montreal, up to 1830, which have the charm of romance, reminding one 



148 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

of its ancient days. The famous voyageurs and coureurs de bois are indissolubly asso- 
ciated with the city. All the canoes that went up the Ottawa, thence to French River 
and Georgian Bay, to Lake Superior and on through innumerable portages, to Lake 
of the Woods and the Winnipeg River and Lake to Fort Garry, set out from the village 
of Lachine, it is true, but they were all laden with Montreal freight and propelled by 
the stalwart arms of Montreal oarsmen. Then came the great development of the 
lumber trade, which gave additional importance to Montreal and increased its wealth. 
This trade brought the whole back country of the Upper Ottawa into commercial union 
with the city, and the profitable connection has continued down to the present time. 
Toward 1840, steamboat navigation was introduced, first from Montreal to Quebec, and 
afterwards from Montreal to the principal towns of Upper Canada. This was the dawn 
of the era which was gradually to enlarge into the system of railways and steamships 
whereby the standard position of Montreal as one of the chief cities of the continent 
was permanently assured. 

It is easy to trace the two main divisions of the population of Montreal. Taking 
St. Lawrence Main Street as a dividino- line, all that is east of it is French, and all 
that is west of it is English-speaking, The two nationalities scarcely overlap this con- 
ventional barrier, except in a few isolated cases. And other external characteristics of 
the French population are as distinct as their language. The houses are less pre- 
tentious, though quite comfortable, and there is a general absence of ornament or of 
surrounding plantations. The extreme eastern portion is designated the Quebec 
suburbs, and there the native people can be studied as easily as in the rural villages, 
from which the majority hail. They are an honest, hard-working race, very gay and 
courteous, and of primitive simplicity of life. Their thrift is remarkable, and they 
manage to subsist on one half of what would hardly satisfy the needs of people of 
other nationalities. The old folks speak little or no English, but it is different with 
the rising generation. These use the two languages indifferently, and herein possess 
a marked advantage over the English, Scotch and Irish. Within late years also, they 
have learned to husband their resources. They have in their midst a flourishing branch 
of the City and District Savings Bank, a number of building societies and two or three 
benevolent guilds. Their poor are cared for by the St. Vincent de Paul Association, 
which has several ramifications, and the Union St. Joseph is devoted to the relief of 
artisans during life, and of their families after death. 

There is a great deal of hoarded wealth among the French inhabitants, but 
as a rule they do not invest it freely. They have among them some of the richest 
men in the city who, however, are modest in their wants, and make no display either 
in the way of sumptuous mansions or gaudy equipages. Although extremely hospita- 
ble and fond of society, they are not in the habit of giving balls or fancy entertain- 
ments, their evenings being spent mostly in mutual visits, where a quiet game of cards 



MONTREAL: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIJ'E 



149 




MOUNTAIN DRIVE, 



predominates. As in Paris so in l^y 

Montreal, it is not easy to obtain 
access into the inner French circles ; 
but once initiated, the stranger is agreeably 
prised at the amount of grace and culture wl 
he meets. It is a current mistake that hig-l 
education is uncommon among these people, 
gift of conversation is almost universal ; the 
topics of art and literature are freely discussed, 
and ladies are familiar with political questions. 

The western part of the city is English. By 
this term is meant all those whose vernacular is our mother-tongue. 
English portion is not so great as the Scotch, who unquestionably take the lead in 
commerce, finance and public enterprise generally. In perhaps no section of the Colo- 
nies have Englishmen and Scotchmen made more of their opportunities than in 
Montreal. There is an air of prosperity about all their surroundings which at once 
impresses the visitor. Taken all in all, there is perhaps no wealthier city area in the 



Numerically, the 



I50 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

world than that comprised between Beaver Hall Hill and the foot of Mount Royal, 
and between the parallel lines of Dorchester and Sherbrooke Streets in the West End. 
Sherbrooke Street is scarcely surpassed by the Fifth Avenue of New York in the 
magnificence of its buildings. The grounds include demesne and park, the charms 
of the country amid the rush and roar of a great commercial centre. In winter 
the equipages present a most attractive spectacle. It has been said that in this 
respect only St. Petersburg can claim precedence over Montreal. A favourite drive 
on a Saturday afternoon in winter is from Victoria Square to Nelson's Column and 
back, the sumptuous sleighs of every description, drawn by high-steppers, and bear- 
ing lovely women ensconced in the richest furs of the Canadian forest, following 
each other in endless succession. There is also a winter driving club, which peri- 
odically starts from the iron gates of McGill College and glides like the wind along 
the country roads to a hospitable rendezvous at Sault aux Recollet, Lachine or Longue 
Pointe, where a bounteous repast and a " hop " are provided. The return home under 
the moon and stars is the most enjoyable feature of the entertainment, and many a 
journey through life has been initiated by these exhilarating drives. 

The extreme south-western portion of the city is occupied almost exclusively by the 
Irish population. It is called Griffintown, from a man of that name who first settled 
there and leased a large tract of ground from the Grey Nuns for ninety-nine years. Over 
sixty years of this lease have already expired, so that in about twenty-five or thirty years 
the ground rent of this immense section will revert to the nuns. Griffintown comprises a 
little world within itself — shops, factories, schools, academies, churches and asylums. The 
Irish population of Montreal take a high stand in business, politics and society. They 
number in their ranks many successful merchants and large capitalists, and have leading 
representatives in all the learned professions. 

The island of Montreal is the most fertile area in the Province of Quebec, and is 
specially renowned for its fruit, the Pommc Grisc, queen of russets, and the incom- 
parable Famcuse, growing with a perfection obtainable nowhere else. It is thickly 
settled, being studded with thriving villages and rich farms. It is about thirty miles 
long and ten broad, and is formed by the confluence of the Ottawa with the St. Law- 
rence at Ste. Anne's, in the western extremity, and by the meeting of the same rivers 
at Bout de I'lsle, on the eastern verge. The Ottawa behind the island is called Riviere 
des Prairies by the French, while the English have adopted the more prosaic title of 
Back River. About the middle of its course is a rapid known as Sault aux Recollet, so 
called from a Recollet missionary who perished there in the days of the Iroquois. 

The city is bountifully provided with summer resorts and retreats within easy 
distance by rail and river. Lachine and Ste. Anne's have long been favourites among 
these, being admirably fitted by nature for boating and fishing purposes. They contain 
many charming villas and country houses. St. Lambert, immediately opposite the city. 



MOA'TREAL: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIl'E 



li^i 



is growing in estimation from year to year. An old stopping-place is Longueuil, 
a little below St. Lambert, which has long had a considerable English colony, and is 
still a favourite resort in summer. No institution pays so well as the Longueuil Ferry, 
for a great deal of the traffic from the fertile counties of Chambly and Laprairie comes 
by it to the city. The quiet bay in front of the village is the roadstead for the craft 
of the Longueuil Yacht Club, whose record stands high in aquatic annals. Within an 
hour's ride is Chambly, situate on a basin of the same name, which forms part of 
the beautiful Richelieu River. Directly opposite tower the basaltic pillars of Belceil 
Mountain, one of the most picturesque spots in Canada, on whose summit a lovely 




THE LONGUEUIL FERRY. 



lake mirrors the sky — a spot resorted to by scores of families whose heads are able to 
come and gfo, to and from the citv. without detriment to their business. 

In the way of parks and pleasure-grounds Montreal is singularly fortunate. There 
is a Mountain Park and an Island Park, both of which may fairly claim to be unri- 
valled. The former cost the city nearly half a million of dollars, but is well worth 
the money. The drive round it is a favourite afternoon recreation for citizens and 
visitors. It ascends from the south-eastern base of Mount Royal, by curves that are 
sometimes like corkscrews, to the highest altitude, w^hence a magnificent panorama is 
outspread, including the whole island of Montreal, the fair Richelieu peninsula, the 
blue waters of Lake Champlain, and the undulating line of the Green Mountams of 
Vermont. Our illustration on page 149 shows the Nuns' Island above the Victoria 
bridge, a beautiful islet that owes its name to its ownership. This Mountain Park is 



152 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

iiiliiiiiiinninmiiiii iiiini niiiif Bill 




still in its native ruggedness, and it 
will take years before it is completed, 
according to a scientific plan embracing 
tracts of landscape-gardening, relieved 
by spaces of woodland, glade and pri- 
m eval forest. It is intended also to 
have preserves for game and wild ani- 
mals. The Island Park is St. Helen's 
Island, in the middle of the river, and 
in it, within reach of sling or arquebuse, 
Montreal possesses a pleasure resort 
nowhere excelled. St. Helen's Island 
has a romantic history. Champlain's 
wife, Helen Bouille, took a fancy to it, 
bought it with the contents of her own 
purse, and in return Champlain gave it 
her name. Later, it fell into the hands 
of the Le Moyne family, and became 
incorporated in their seigniory of Lon- 
gueuil. Finally, it was purchased by the 
Government for military purposes, and barracks were erected thereon. After 



MONTREAL: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIJ'E 



15: 



the departure of the British troops from the country, the property was passed over to 
the Federal Government, who leased it, on certain conditions, to the city for park pur- 
poses. Looking at it from the city one has no idea of its height in the centre. It slopes 
upward from the water's edge, and thus affords a capital military position, as may be seen 
at a glance in our illustration of the Old Battery. The same feature makes it one of the 
best possible points from which to get a view of the city, especially of the harbour and 
long-extended line of wharves and docks, with the mountain towering up in the back- 




OLD BATTERY, ST. HELEN'S ISLAND. 



ground. In the fall of 1760, the island was the scene of a dramatic incident. The 
Chevalier de Levis, who defeated Murray at the battle of Ste. Foye in the summer 
of that year, and would have recaptured Quebec and retrieved the disaster of tne 
Plains of Abraham, had not a British fleet suddenly arrived under the shadow of 
Cape Diamond, was obliged to retreat towards Montreal, whither he was soon followed 
by Murray and Amherst. The French had to bow to the inevitable, and Vaudreuil 
signed the articles of capitulation. Meantime Levis, who had retired to St. Helen's 
Island, sent a flag of truce to Murray, to request the surrender of his troops with the 
honours of war. For some inexplicable reason this demand was not granted, and 



154 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

the high-minded Frenchman construed the denial into an insult. When the shadows 
of night had fallen, and the foliage of the sjreat trees intensified the darkness, he 
gathered his men in the centre of the island around a pyre of blazing wood. At the 
word of command the colours were trooped, the staffs broken, and the whole thrown 
into the fire, while the drums beat to arms, and the veterans cried "Vive la France!" 
with the anguish of despair. The next morning the remnant of the French army 
filed before their conquerors and piled their arms, but never a shred of the white 
flag was there, to deepen their humiliation. 

Chief among the public squares and gardens of Montreal, in size and in historic 
interest, is the Champ de Mars. In 1812, the citadel or mound on the present site of Dal- 
housie Square was demolished, and the earth of which it was composed was carried over 
and strewn upon the Champ de Mars. This fact, within the memory of the oldest 
inhabitants, has led some people to suppose that the Field of Mars dates only from that 
comparatively late period. Such, however, is not the fact. No doubt the dumping of 
so much new earth, with proper levelling and rolling, was a great improvement ; but 
the site and general outlines of the ground itself belong to a higher antiquity. The 
Champ was a scene of promenade in the old French days, and many is the golden 
sunset that fired the leafy cylinders of its Lombardy poplars, as beaux, with peaked 
hats and purple doublets, sauntered under their graceful ranks in the company of 
short-skirted damsels. The chief glory of the Champ de Mars is its military history. 
With the single exception of the Plains of Abraham, there is no other piece of 
ground in America which has been successively trodden by the armies of so many dif- 
ferent nations in martial array. First, it witnessed the evolutions of the blue-coated 
Frenchmen — probably such historical regiments as those of Carignan and Rousillon — and 
its sands were crunched by the hoofs of chargers that bore Montcalm and Levis. 
Then the serried ranks of red-coats paraded from the days of Murray and Carleton. 
It were worth while to know how many regiments of the British army have, at one 
time or another, turned out on the Champ de Mars. Next, for about six months, the 
ground was used by 

"The cocked-hat Continentals, 
In their ragged regimentals ;" 

rp,any of whom went forth therefrom to defeat and death under the cliffs at Quebec, 
with the heroic Montgomery. And now it is the parade-ground of our Canadian \^olun- 
teers. The illustration gives us a specimen of the Victoria Rifles, one of Montreal's 
crack regiments. The buildings shown are the rear of the Hotel de Ville and of the 
Court House ; then the twin towers of the parish church, which are seen from almost 
every point of view; and next to them the side of the modest little Presbyterian Church 
called St. Gabriel's, which is given below in its full dimensions. This is the oldest 



MONTREAL: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIl'E 



155 




Protestant Church standing 
in Montreal, and lon^ may 
it stand, for it preser\es the 
memor)- of Christian cour- 
tesies betwfen three lead- 
ing Christian communions. 
While the church was being 
built, the good old Recollet Fathers offered the congregation the use of their chapel 
to worship in. The sturdy -Scotchmen accepted the offer, and when they moved into 
their own kirk presented the Fathers with a hogshead of Canary wine and two boxeS 
of candles. Subsequently, when the Anglican church was burnt, the Presbyterians-^- 
doubtless remembering how they had been indebted to others — came forward promptly 
and put St. Gabriel's at the entire disposal of the Anglicans for the half of every 



156 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 




m 

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2 

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O 

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MONTREAL: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 157 

Sunday, until their church could be rebuilt. This offer was accepted as graciously 
as it was made, and thus St. Gabriel's is, in itself, a monument equal in interest to 
anything in Montreal. 

Historically, the Place d'Armes is even more interesting. As it stands at present, 
there are few more charming spots in Canada, framed in as it is by the Corinthian 
portico of the Montreal Bank, the Ionic colonnade of the City Bank — now the buildings 
of the Canada Pacific Railway Company — and the towers of Notre Dame. Our view is 
taken from Notre Dame, so that we get only a portion of the Place d'Armes ; but while 
we lose part of the Place, we gain a glimpse of the city as a whole, extending away to 
the foot of the mountains. Next to the Bank of Montreal, with its beautiful portico, 
stands the Post Office. Between it and the mountains the most prominent buildings are 
St. Mary's College and the Church of the Gcsu, which attracts Protestants to its services 
by good music. P'arther west the unshapely pile of St. Patrick's Cathedral bulks largely 
on the slope of Beaver Hall. The garden of the Place d'Armes is very beautiful in 
summer, with its young trees and central pyramidal fountain ; but in winter it is invested 
with a particular glory — for the place is the coldest spot in Montreal at all seasons of the 
year — the north-west winds streaming from the mountain in that direction as through a 
Colorado cailon. Its history goes back to the early history of the city. In 1643 and 
1644, the Colony of Villemarie — the beautiful ancient name of Montreal — was practically in 
a state of siege, owing to the incursions of Indians. The noble Maisonneuve kept on the 
defensive for a time, until he was remonstrated with, and several of his more influential 
followers openly charged him with cowardice. This stirred his martial spirit ; he deter- 
mined on changing his tactics. With a train of dogs accustomed to scent the trail of 
the Iroquois, and at the head of thirty armed men, he marched out in the direction of 
the mountain, where he was met by upwards of two hundred savages, who fell upon 
him and compelled his forces to retreat. Maisonneuve formed the rear-guard. With a 
pistol in each hand, he walked slowly back, and never halted until he reached the present 
site of the Place d'Armes. There, when the French had repulsed the foe and gathered 
their dead and wounded, they understood both the valour of their commandant and the 
wisdom of remaining behind the shelter of their fortifications. 

There is no city in America which has a greater number of public institutions of 
an ecclesiastical, educational, or charitable character. Chief among these is the Church 
of Notre Dame, the largest edifice of the kind in America, except the Cathedral of 
Mexico. At the founding of Villemarie, a temporary chapel of bark was built on 
" Pointe a Calliere," which was used until the following year, when a wooden structure 
was raised on the same spot. In 1654, this chapel becoming too small, M. de Maison- 
neuve suggested the construction of a more commodious church adjoining the hospital 
in St. Paul Street, on the spot where stands to-day the block of stores belonging to 
the Hotel Dieu. Service was held there for upwards of twenty years. In 1672, the 



158 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 



foundations of a more spacious edifice were laid in th.e Place d'xA.rmes, and the church 
was completed in 1678. This lasted till 1823, when the present temple was devised, 
which, on the 15th June, 1829, was opened for public worship under the auspices of 
Mgr. Lartigue, first R. C. Bishop of Montreal. The pile was intended to be 
a representative of its namesake, Notre Dame, of Paris. Its towers are 227 feet 




in height, and contain a peal of 
eleven bells, unru ailed on this 
■ . i continent. The " Gros Bourdon" 

^ ,-i3f^"^- - .- I of the western tower is numbered 

among the five heaviest bells in 
the world. It was cast in Lon- 
don, weighs 24,780 pounds, is si.x feet high, and at its mouth measures eight feet 
seven inches in diameter. The nave of the church, including the sanctuarv, is 220 
feet in length, nearly 80 feet in height, 69 in width, exclusive of the side aisles, 
which measure 25^ feet each, and the walls are five feet thick. The church is 
capable of holding 1 2,000, and on extraordinary occasions, when chairs are used, 
15,000 persons. The twin towers of Notre Dame stand out to every traveller as one 
of the notable landmarks of Montreal. 



MONTREAL: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 



59 



Other churches are so numerous that Montreal, like Brooklyn, has been denomi- 
nated the City of Churches. Christ Church Cathedral, on St. Catherine .Street, stands 
deservedly first. It is a gem of Gothic architecture, not surpassed by Grace Church, of 

New York. It is built of 
limestone, dressed with 
cream-coloured sandstone, 
and its interior fittings 
/ are in remarkably good 

taste. In the grounds is 
a monument to the mem- 
ory of Bishop Fulford, 
one of the most dis- 
tinguished prelates that 
ever ruled the Church 
of England in Canada. 
The Presbyterians have 
noble edifices in St. 
Paul's and St. Andrew's. 







MiMm^. 



kfA. ^ 



V'i-.ii,, 



% 



PULPIT OF NOTRE DAME. 



The Methodists, Unitarians, Congregationalists and others are well represented, while 
the Israelites have two synagogues. The Jesuits boast of a church which is an 
exact counterpart of the celebrated Gesu, of Rome. The spirit of ambition is strong 
in the Catholics. The late Bishop, Mgr. Bourget, commenced the task of erecting a 
fac-siiiiilf in miniature of St. Peter's. The architect was instructed to proceed to Rome 



i6o FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

and simply reduce St. Peter's to exactly one-third of its actual dimensions and reproduce 
it in that fashion in Montreal. Slowly it has been growing before the puzzled eyes of 
the citizens, and strangers ask with wonderment what it is, or is likely to be. 

Not only are the charitable institutions of Montreal more numerous in respect 
to population than those of any other city on this continent, but several of them 
belong to a high antiquity, and are intimately connected with salient events in the 
history of New France. The foundation, for instance, of the Hotel Dieu, reads like 
a romance. When Maisonneuve offered his services to the " Compagnie de Montreal," 
and was named Governor of the future colony, he was sagacious enough to understand 
that his scheme stood in need of a virtuous woman who would take care of the sick, 
and superintend the distribution of supplies. Such a person should be of heroic 
mould, to face the dangers and privations of the wilderness. What gold could not 
purchase. Providence supplied in the person of a young woman — Jeanne Mance, daughter 
of a prociireiir dii roi, near Lamoges, in Champagne — who was impelled by an irre- 
sistible vocation to the missions of New France. Queen Anne, of Austria, and several 
distinguished ladies of the Court, apprised of her merit and extraordinary resolution, 
encouraged her in her design ; and Madame Bouillon, a distinguished lady of that 
period, placed means at her disposal for the establishment of an hospital. In the 
summer of 1641, two vessels sailed from La Rochelle, one bearing Maisonneuve, a 
priest and twenty-five men — the other carrying Mademoiselle Mance, a missionary and 
twelve men. The winter was spent at Sillery, near Quebec. On the opening of 
navigation in 1642, a small flotilla, consisting of two barges, a pinnace and another 
boat, moved up the solitary highway of the St. Lawrence, and on the iSth May 
possession was taken of Montreal by the celebration of a solemn mass. The two 
principal persons who figured at the ceremony were Maisorfneuve and Mademoiselle 
Mance ; and thus it happened that a woman assisted in the founding of this great city. 

Another community has long been identified with the history of Montreal. The 
mission of the Grey Nuns is to assist the poor, visit the sick, educate the orphan, and 
enfold with maternal arms the nameless and homeless foundling. There is no charity 
more beautiful than theirs, and hence their popularity with Protestants as well as 
Catholics. The Order was founded by Madame de Zanille, a Canadian lady, belonging 
to the distinguished families of Varennes and Boucher de Boucherville. The old con- 
vent stood for many years on Foundling Street — named thus in its honour — opposite 
Ste. Anne's Market, — but had to make way for the encroachments of trade, and has 
since been transferred to magnificent buildings on Guy Street. The Grey Nuns have 
spread over the Province, and have numerous representatives in the north-west, as far 
even as the Upper Saskatchewan. 

In the noble work of charity, the Protestant population, although numerically far 
inferior, has more than held its own. Notwithstanding the amplitude of its accom- 



I 



MONTREAL: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIJ'E 



i6r 



modation, the General Hospital was not found sufficiently large, and a good citizen, 
Major Mills, established another in the extreme west end, whence it derives its name 
of the Western Hospital. It has been said that charity differs from trade in this, 
that whereas the latter is always in direct ratio of supply to demand, the former 

reverses the rule ; and the more It expands 
- jj^ resources, the more it finds objects of 

misery to relieve. The principle has held 
good in the case of the Western Hospital, 
\\hich has been crowded from its opening day. 
In 1863 a number of leading citizens, 
reahzmo; the 
necessity of 



■" Tl q-iiralinir 




a peculiar asylum of 
help for the Protestant 
poor and unfortunate 
— especially the aged 
and feeble, who had 
no means of livelihood 
^raised upwards of 
$80,000, with which 
they laid the founda- 
tions of the institution called the Protestant House of Refuge and Industry. The 
dual character of the population, elsewhere referred to, has made necessary a double 
set of asylums for Protestants and Catholics, which accounts for the extraordinary 
number of these institutions, as compared with the total number of inhabitants. 



, . SaEBIIIiSi 

IN THE CHAPEL OF GREY NUNNERY. 



l62 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 



Chief among the educational estabhshments of Montreal is McGill University, whose 
history embraces several features that deserve consideration. Hon. James McGill, who 
was born at Glasgow in 1744, and died at Montreal in 1813, by his last will and testa- 
ment devised the estate of Burnside, containing forty-seven acres of land, and bequeathed 
a large sum of money for the purposes of this foundation. The University was erected 
by Ro}al Charter in 1821, and reorganized by an amended Charter in 1852. Its 




CITY HALL, AND NELSONS MONUMENT. 

endowments, exhibitions and scholar- 
ships are already respectable. The 
Molson Chair of Eno-lish Language and 
Literature, the Peter Redpath Chair 
of Natural History, the Logan Chair 
of Geology, the John Frothingham 
Chair of Mental and Moral Philosophy, 
have each an endowment of $20,000. Students attend McGill not only from every 
Province of the Dominion, but from the United States. It counts among its professors 
some distinguished scholars, notably Dr. Dawson, the Principal, whose scientific reputation 
is world-wide. Among the affiliated institutions are Morrin College, Quebec ; St. P""rancis 
College, Richmond; the Congregational College of British, North America; the Presby- 
terian College of Montreal ; the Diocesan College of Montreal, and the Wesleyan College 



MONTREAL: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIJ'E 



i6- 



of Montreal. Under the regulations for the establishment of Normal Schools in the 
Province of Quebec, the Superintendent of Education is empowered to associate with 
himself, for the direction of one of these schools, the corporation of McGill University. 
In accordance with this arrangement, the Pro- 
vincial Protestant Normal School is affiliated 
with McGill, and for the past quarter of a 
century has trained teachers, especially for 
the Protestant population of the Province. 
The Model Schools attached to the institu- 
tion are three in number — one for boys, one 







•tB 



ANCIENT TOWERS AT MONTREAL COLLEGE. 



for girls, and a primary. These schools are capable of accommodating about three 
hundred pupils ; are supplied with the best furniture and apparatus ; and are conducted 
on the most approved methods of teaching. They receive pupils from the age of six 
and upwards, and give a thorough English education. There are two high schools — 
one for boys and another for girls — largely attended. 

Montreal College and St. Mary's College are Roman Catholic institutions. The 
former occupies a magnificent site on Sherbrooke Street, at the foot of the mountain, 
and the building is probably the largest single and continuous pile in America. This 
institution has been intimately associated with the history of Montreal for over a 



i64 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

hundred years. It is under the control of the Seminary of St. Sulpice, who were 
made seigniors of the Island of Montreal and its environs by Royal Letters Patent, 
in 1640. The Theological Department is specially remarkable, and has been the 
nursery of priests and missionaries for more than a century. Its students are from 
all parts. Chief among the objects of interest connected with the college are the 
two round towers near the gates, which tradition traces back to the early days of 
the colony, when they were built as outposts of defence against the red men. These 
towers are kept in a perfect state of preservation, as memorials of those ancient days 
of peril. 

St. Mary's College, on Bleury Street, is under the direction of the Jesuit Fathers, 
and their boast is that it is second to none of their establishments on this continent, 
which is saying a great deal when one is acquainted with such old and successful colleges 
as those of Fordham, N. Y., Georgetown, D. C, and St. Louis. Mo. Their celebrated 
Ratio Stndioritm is carried out to the letter, and the results deserve attention, because 
the methods are so different from those in vogue in our day. There is tone and style 
in everything connected with St. Mary's College. Strangers are received with the utmost 
courtesy, whether they visit the institution itself or the adjoining Church of the Gcsii, 
to see its relics of saints and its frescoes. 

A second Normal School for the French and Catholics, under the patronymic of 
Jacques Cartier, was located from its foundation in the old Government House at 
Chateau Ramezay, opposite the City Hall, but has since been transferred to palatial 
quarters on an eminence at the East End. The management is almost wholly 
ecclesiastical, the Principal being Abbe Verreau, distinguished as an historian and 
antiquarian. The Catholic Commercial Academy, off St. Catherine Street, is the only 
institution of the kind in the Province which is altogether under the control of laymen, 
and from all accounts it has met with complete success. 

The Art Association of Montreal was incorporated in 1858, but for man}- years it 
had but a languid existence. The late Bishop Fulford did much to encourage its mem- 
bers, but the credit of having placed the society on a permanent footing is due to 
Benaiah Gibb, who left property, money, and a number of paintings from his own col- 
lection, to form a gallery. A suitable building has been erected in Phillips' Square, 
and the art gallery was recently opened by His Excellency the Marquis of Lome and 
H. R. H. the Princess Louise. 

While little has been done for art, less has been done for libraries. The Me- 
chanics' Institute has a collection of books, but not at all adequate to the wants of 
so large a population. A movement is at present on foot, tending to the establishment 
of a public library commensurate with the size, wealth and culture of the city. In truth, 
money was left by the late Mr. Eraser, to build and furnish a public library, but for 
some mysterious reason, the library is still ?'« posse. The Institut Canadien flourished 



MONTREAL: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIl'E 



165 



^^^-^- 

^^>:1^ 










-^fc'-*''^-^ \ s:-■ 




CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL, FROM PHILLIPS' SQUARE. 



for many years with a good library and reading-room, but it has of late fallen into 
disuse, and its books have been advertised for sale. 

But Montreal is more interested in outdoor sports and in organizing amusement 
clubs than in art. The Victoria skating club, whose famous rink on Drummond Street 
was one of the first erected on this continent, has been the scene of many brilliant fancy- 
dress entertainments, which Royalty and nobility have graced. Those " carnivals " on the 
ice were first instituted here, and have since become popular elsewhere. There are three 



1 66 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

curlincr clubs — the Caledonia, Montreal and Thistle — with a Canadian branch of the 
Royal Caledonian curling club of Scotland. The Montreal curling club was 
founded in 1807, and ranks high in the annals of the " roarin' game." Snow-shoeing 
has been reduced to an art. The parent club, the " Montreal," is perhaps the most 
prosperous corporate body of the kind in the city. The costume is singularly pic- 
turesque — white flannel coat and leggings, blue cap with tassel — from which is derived 
the popular name of Tuque Bleue — red sash and moccasins. There is no prettier sight 
than that of the club meeting at the McGill College gates, moving up the flank of the 
mountain to the " Pines," and then gliding to the rendezvous at the Club House, at 
Outremont. The memorable torchlight procession over this route to the hospitable 
villa of Thornbury, made in honour of Lord Dufferin, in 1873, was a fairy spectacle 
which will never be forgotten by those who witnessed it. Every winter there is a sweep- 
stakes over the mountain, a day devoted to games and races, and several tramps across 
country to a distance of twenty-five or thirty miles. Lacrosse is the "national game" 
of Canada, and in that character it had its birth in Montreal. Four or five years ago, 
a select team made the tour of England, and had the honour of playing before Her 
Majesty at Windsor. The Indian clubs of Caughnawaga and St. Regis always take 
part in the games, but they have long lost the supremacy which they enjoyed for cen- 
turies. There is also a golf club, established in 1873, under the auspices of the Earl 
of Dufferin ; a bicycle club, foot-ball club, and a chess club, which numbers among its 
members some of the strongest and most brilliant players in the country ; an active and 
energetic club for the protection of fish and game, as well as a society for the pre- 
vention of cruelty to animals; two gymnasia, and a McGill College athletic club, 
whose annual games recall many feats of skill and strength. Boating is also a favourite 
pastime, and there are three large yacht clubs — the Montreal, Longueuil and Lachine. 
A regatta in Hochelaga Basin, with the prow of the graceful little vessels steering straight 
as a needle for the twin spires of Varennes Church, is as pretty a sight as one could 
wish to see. 

The turning-point in the business history of Montreal was in 1850 or thereabouts, 
when it suddenly manifested a tendency to expand. That change was mainly due to 
two causes — the Allan I^ine of Steamships and the Grand Trunk Railway. This leads us 
to speak of the shipping and the carrying-trade from the interior to the seaboard, and 
vice versa. The geographical position of the city is of course e.xceptional ; but in order 
to make the most of it, it was necessary to obviate the difficulty presented b)' the Lachine 
Rapids to up-stream navigation. The only way to do that was to turn the rapids b)- a 
canal. The Sulpicians understood this as far back as 1700, when they opened a sluice, 
2y2 feet deep, by the River St. Pierre to Montreal, ami used lioats therein. In 1821 
public-spirited citizens, led by Hon. John Richardson, resolved to enlarge this primitive 
boat canal into a bary-e canal. Richardson wanted it to extend from Lachine to 



MONTREAL: lIISrORICAL AND DESCRIPTH'E 



167 




STEAMER PASSING LOCKS, AND UNLOADING SHIPS BY ELECTRIC LIGHT. 



Hochelaga, so as to avoid the current opposite the fort of St. Helen's Island and 
Isle Ronde, and thus make Hochelaga the real port, as Nature intended it to be, seeing 
that in its majestic basin the fleets of the world might moor in safety. But the oppo- 
sition of interested parties thwarted this vast design, and the canal was dug onlv to 
Windmill Point, its present terminus, a distance of S'i miles. The work was commenced 



1 68 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

in 1 82 1 and completed in 1825. But there was more to come, because more was needed. 
The barge canal was not sufficient, and must give way to a ship canal. The widening 
began in 1843 ^i^d continued till its completion in 1849, at an outlay of over $2,000,000. 
With the opening of these works the commercial supremacy of Montreal was secured, 
because it fixed the union of ocean and inland navig-ation. The trade, indeed, orew to such 
a volume that the canal was once more found inadequate, and in 1875 another enlargement 
was begun, at an estimated cost of $6,500,000. This is part of a gigantic scheme for 
the widening of the whole St. Lawrence canal system, a work whose magnitude will 
be understood when we remember that from the Atlantic entrance of the straits of Belle 
Isle, via the St. Lawrence and inland lakes to the head of Lake Superior, the distance 
is 2384 miles, and that on that route there are the Lachine, Beauharnois, Cornwall, 
Farran's Point, Rapide Plat, Galops and Welland Canals, the aggregate length of which 
is 70^^ miles; and the total lockage 536^ feet, through fifty-four locks up to Lake Erie; 
also, the Sault Ste. Marie Canal, built by the United States, one and one-seventeenth 
miles in length, with eighteen feet of lockage. These canals make Montreal the rival of 
New York for the grain and provision trade of the Great West and North-west. Her 
facilities are great, and there is every prospect of farther and speedy development. 
Already, we can get on board the " Bohemian," or some other large and well-appointed 
steamer, at the lowest dock of the Lachine Canal, and take as pleasant a summer 
journey up the St. Lawrence as mortal tired of the dust and heat of the city can 
desire ; and still on by water without a break, up lake after lake, to " the city of 
the unsalted seas," in the heart of the Continent. Or, we can go east as safely as 
west. Nearly thirty years ago the first steamers of the Allan Company were 
sent forth, but a series of disasters well-nigh brought the enterprise to the ground. 
The Company persevered, however, until now they possess one of the finest and largest 
fleets afloat, comprising twenty-five iron and steel steamers, to say nothing of swift 
and powerful clippers. These vessels ply between Montreal and Liverpool, Montreal 
and Glasgow, Boston and Liverpool, and Boston and Glasgow. There are beside 
eight or ten steamship lines employed regularly in the Montreal trade — the Dominion, 
Beaver, Temperley, Ross, Thompson, Donaldson, Great Western, White Cross and Gulf 
Ports. A French line is also in near contemplation, for next season, as well as a service 
with Brazil. The inland navigation is perfectly supplied. We have a daily mail steamer 
to and from Quebec, connecting with steamers to all the watering places of the Lower 
St. Lawrence and the Saguenay ; also a daily line to the ports of Ontario as far as 
Hamilton ; another daily line up the Ottawa, and a number of way-boats to all the 
villages and towns of the St. Lawrence and Richelieu Rivers. The port is admirably 
provided with wharves and basins, and farther accommodation is being prepared. 
Indeed, the enlargement of the harbour is one of the main questions of the future, and 
some remarkable plans have already been submitted to the public. All the modern 



MONTREAL: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTU'E 



169 



■^r :-' 




OS 

O 
< 

< 

W 

a; 

z 

o 



I70 FREXCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

appliances for loading and unloading are employed, and the facilities for almost immediate 
transhipment from freight-cars to the hold of vessels are unsurpassed. Montreal was the 
first port in the world lighted by electricity. The result is continuous labour. The 
electric lights are placed at intervals of about two hundred yards, from the mouth of 
the Lachine Canal to Hochelaga, so that the whole harbour is lit up. The question of 
harbour dues has been engaging attention, and steps have been taken to make Montreal 
a free port. The port is governed by a Board of Commissioners, a portion of whom 
represent the Federal Government, another the shipping interest, and a third part the 
city corporation. It is impossible to conceive of a more striking contrast than that pre- 
sented by the harbour in summer and in winter. Our illustration shows that part of 
it near the Custom House called Island Wharf. The dock here is always crowded with 
ocean steamers, elevators drawing grain from barges and loading them, and vessels and 
skiffs of all sizes — while a forest of masts and funnels e.xtends far down the river. The 
scene is one of busy labour night and day. The great river sweeps past in calm 
majesty, with a force that no power could arrest. But the frost king comes, and everything 
that looks like commerce takes flight. The river is sealed fast, till another power 
comes with kindly influences. The spring rains and suns rot the ice, and it begins to 
break. Montreal is on the qui vive to see it start down the river. It starts, but is 
usually blocked at Isle Ronde, and grounds. Then it shoves, and piles up, and the 
lower parts of the city are flooded. To cross with a boat at such a time is not 
only an exciting but often a perilous undertaking, as the cakes of ice may move or 
turn under the men, when of course the danger is extreme even to the most skilful 
ice-navigators. 

The Grand Trunk Railway has been for years the main artery of the commerce 
of the country, and Montreal is its chief terminus. Five other lines of railway centre 
here — the Champlain and St. Lawrence, Central Vermont, Boston and Delaware, 
South-Eastern, and North Shore. The North Shore (officially named the Quebec, Mon- 
treal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway) has its central station in the eastern part of the 
city, on the site of the old Quebec Gate Barracks, which had to be torn down in con- 
sequence, thus depriving the city of one of its most interesting historical landmarks. 
This railway is the property of the local government, which is said" to have expended 
about thirteen millions in its construction, thereby creating a debt that weighs like an 
incubus upon the Province. 

The Montreal Board of Trade was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1842, and 
consists of an Executive and a Board of Arbitrators. There is also a Corn Exchange 
Association, incorporated in 1863, with a Committee of Management and a Board of 
Review. A third corporation, the Dominion Board of Trade, received its initiation 
mainly in Montreal, though its annual meetings have generally been held in Ottawa 
Another important body is the Montreal Stock Exchange, which holds two daily ses- 



MONTREAL: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTU'E 



171 



sions, forenoon and afternoon. The scene of its operations is St. Francois Xavier Street, 
whicli is the Wall Street of Montreal. There all the brokers have their offices, and 
about noon, on certain days, the sidewalks are crowded with dealers and speculators, 
discussing the ebb and flow of stocks, and conductino- their mysterious operations. St. 
Francois Xavier is one of the oldest and narrowest streets of the city, but it affords 




^%V. 



—fail 



TRANSFERRING FREIGHT BY ELECTRIC LIGHT. 



a curious ground of observation for the visitor who wishes to form an idea of the 
financial importance of the Canadian metropolis. When the heterogeneousness of the 
population is taken into account, the city government may be said to be fairly well 
administered. The standing trouble is the rivalry between the East and West Ends — 
that is, the French and English-speaking portions. 

St. Urbain is another street that may be said to be on the border-land between 
the English and the French-speaking population of Montreal. We see it in winter 



172 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 




MONTREAL WINTER SCENES. 



MONTREAL: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIJ'E 



'73 



dress, the snow cleared from the sidewalks and forming parallel lines, between which 
traffic makes its way much more smoothly than in summer. 'Die snow is less of 
an impediment to ordinary business than is dust or rain durino- the other seasons 







NOTRE DAME, FROM ST. URBAIN STREET. 



of the year. It is a decided impediment, indeed, to tlie progress of conflagrations, 
with which Montreal used to be scourged. The department, however, is now so 
thoroughly organized that it is almost impossible for a fire to make any headway 
before it is checked. The alarm system is so perfect and the brigade so disci- 



174 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 



plined, that no conflagrations on an extensive scale have taken place within the past 
twenty-five years. Everything is also done to protect property in case of fire. The 
illustration is a spirited sketch of a salvage wagon that has just come out of the 



Jf 
y 








IN ST. GABRIEL STREET. 



fire station on St. Gabriel Street, and is plunging along between the lines of piled-up 
snow, to the spot indicated by the alarm. The duty of the men is to cover up all 
endangered property with tarpaulins, and to be its custodians till questions of ownership 
and insurance are settled. 

In a first visit to Montreal, by all means let the traveller approach from the water — 



MONTREAL: HISTORICAL AXD DESCRIPTIJ-E 



175 



from up stream, down stream, or the south shore. From all three directions the view will 
repay him. The river itself is so fascinating in its strength of crystal purit)', so over- 
powering in vastness and might, that it would dwarf an ordinary city. It does dwarf every 
other place along its banks — Quebec alone excepted. It bears, lightly as a garland, the 
chain of the great bridge that binds its opposite shores with multiplied links of massive 
granite. The green slopes of St. Helen's Island resting like a leaf on the water, the 




forest of masts and 
red and white fun- 
nels, the old-fashioned hay and wood barges, the long line of solidly-built revetment 
wall, the majestic dome of the Bonsecours Market, the twin towers of Notre Dame, 
palatial warehouses, graceful spires sown thick as a field, and the broad shoulders of 
Mount Royal uplifted in the background, make up a picture that artist, merchant, or 
patriot — each for his own reasons — may well delight to look upon. To persons coming 
from abroad, believing Canada to be a wilderness of ice and snow, the home of 
Indians and buffaloes, the first view is a revelation. When they drive through any 
of the numerous magnificent business thoroughfares, and then round the mountain, they 
sometimes consider what sort of a back country that must be which supplies such a 
river and builds up such a city, and wonder why — in the face of such grand enter- 



176 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

prises and unrivalled progress on the part of Canadians — they have never heard of 
such a thing as Canadian patriotism. 

Of the three water views there is none equal to that obtained on a summer after- 
noon or evenine from the deck of a steamer comina^ down stream. From the time 
the Indian pilot is taken on board above the Lachine Rapids, all is eager expect- 
ancy on the part of passengers who have made the journey again and again, as well 
as in the case of tourists who are running the rapids for the first time. As we near 
Victoria Bridge it seems impossible that the " Corsican " can pass under, and the 
question is sometimes asked whether there is any arrangement for lowering the funnels. 
The steamer glides along ; we look up and see our mistake, and then look down upon 
the innocent questioner. Now the crowded harbour, the city in its fresh beauty, 
and the mountain in all the glory of its summer vesture, are revealed. The steamer 
rounds up to the Commissioners' Wharf, to discharge its Quebec passengers into the 
huge palace floating alongside. Land here and stroll down stream before taking 
a cab. You soon find yourself in the heart of French-Montreal. Here are antique 
barges with hay, from the surrounding country, which Is being unloaded into carts 
primitive enough for the days and the land of Evangeline. Instead of the rush of 
an American city, there is an air of repose and human enjoyment. The very coasters 
and carters pause in their work, to exchange gossip and cheery jokes. Here, again, 
are wood-barges that have evidently come from a greater distance. Each barge 
discharges part of its load at once and places it on the wharf on racks that indicate 
its measurement by the cord. The purchaser can thus point out exactly how much 
he wants, and the barge remains calmly beside the wharf till the whole cargo is sold. 
A few years ago, wood and hay barges were to be found In the centre of the harbour ; 
but the Increasing trafiic Is pushing them farther and farther down, all the way to 
Hochelaga. Return to the Bonsecours. The market is a great three-storey parallelo- 
gram of cut-stone, occupying a square on the river-front, and with a stately dome and 
cupola. It is crowded on the forenoons of market-days, when the manners of the 
habitant can be studied to best advantage. He has come to the city with the produce 
of his farm or garden. Quiet, patient, courteous, he waits for customers. Sometimes, 
these may be his own neighbours who happen to need what he has to sell, and then he 
puts down his price a little. Sometimes they are from the East End — French therefore — 
and to them he is more than amiable, and sells fairlv. But the grand lady from the 
West End, while receiving ample politeness, must pay full price. Still, there is good feeling 
between the different races and, for the most part, honest dealing. Are they not citizens 
of a common country, even though the Ultramontane studiously characterizes those of 
English speech as "foreigners"? From the market, go up the lane leading to the 
old-fashioned church. The lane Is encroached upon by little dingy eating-houses, thrown 
out, like buttresses, from the walls of the church. l^ingy as they are, they give a 



MONTREAL: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 



177 







MAIL STEAMER PASSING UMJtK VILIURIA BRIDGE. 



better cup of coffee than either steamer or more inviting-looking restaurants. You soon 
reach St. Paul's Street, the street that constituted the City of Montreal at first, and 
noAV, by all means, enter the favourite city church of the habitant. The loud colours, 
the tawdry gilt and general bad taste of modern Catholicism, and the elaborate upholstery 
of shoddy Protestantism, are alike conspicuous by their absence. The relievos on the 
walls, the altar, the antique pulpit, remind one of a seventeenth century parish church 
in Brittany. We are taken back to the days of Marguerite Bourgeois, who laid the 
foundation-stone more than two centuries ago. Baron de Fancamp gave her a small 
image of the Virgin, endowed with miraculous virtue, on condition that a chapel should 
be built for its reception. Marguerite and the people of Montreal enthusiastically complied 
with the condition. From that day, many a wonderful deliverance, especially of sailors, 
has been attributed to Our Lady of Gracious Help. The image still stands on the 



178 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 



eable nearest the river, and within, votive offerings and memorials of deliverances almost 
hide the altar. An agnostic might envy the simple faith of the people, and the states- 
man could desire no better race to till the soil. Every true Lower Canadian loves the 
Bonsecours Chapel. It symbolizes, to a race that clings to the past, faith, country and 
fatherland. And it is the only symbol of the kind that "modern improvements" have 
left in Montreal. The old Recollet has been swept away. The spoilers have spoiled 
Quebec. And all over the Province, quaint churches beloved by the people are being 
replaced by huge, costly, modern structures. In the name of everything distinctively 
Lower Canadian, spare symbols like Varennes and the Bonsecours ! 

Here, beside his church and market, in the stately commercial metropolis of Canada, 
the white city of America, we leave the habitant, with cordial recognition of what he 
has been and is, and with all good wishes for his future. 




UNLOADING HAY BARGES. 



77/// [Oiri:R OTTAJJ'A 



179 



THE LOWER OTTAAVA. 




CANAL AND LOCKS AT LACHINE 

"nr^HE dark-brown waters 
-*- of the Ottawa at 
their dcbouchcincnt below 
the Lake of Two Moun- 
tains divide into three 
channels, the two smaller 
of which ' flow north re- 
spectively of Laval and of Montreal Island, while the third and most considerable in 
size expands into Lake St. Louis, one of the largest lakes on the St. Lawrence. 
We are about to trace the course of the "Grand River" from the commercial to the 
political metropolis of Canada, throui:(h a region no less rich in historic associations 
than in its inexhaustible beauty of scenery, unchanged in the picturesque wildness of 
river, hill and wood, since Champlain, first of white men, adventured to explore its 
sombre waters ; and yet, embellished with all the tokens of modern civilization and 
progress, its waters control-led by machinery that can lock or loose its forces, and 
spanned by huge viaducts through which the locomotive thunders ; and farther on, as we 
ascend its current, directed by the skill and toil of civilized man into an open, navi- 
gable stream from city to city, its shores enriched with all that betokens agricultural 



i8o FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

plenty, while quaint church-towers and tastefully-decorated villas give the charm of human 
interest to scenes of such varied natural beauty. 

From the wharf at Montreal we take the steamer which is to carry us up the 
Ottawa to our destination at the Capital. We proceed for the first eight and a half 
miles along the Lachine Canal amid scenery tranquil and uneventful as that of a Dutch 
village. Along the level banks are occasional trees and houses, whose general appearance 
is scarcely such as to indicate the neighbourhood of Canada's wealthiest city. Before 
us the canal extends mathematically straight, for the most part on a higher level than 
the surrounding fields, so that sometimes we can peep into the top-storey windows of 
the houses as we pass. Every now and then we are delayed by a lock, of which we 
encounter five on our way to Lachine. First the lock-gates are closed upon our steamer; 
then machmery is set at work which admits the water from the higher level ; seething 
and tossing, the flood bears us up ; the gates are once more opened, and after a delay 
of some twenty minutes we pass on. We meet endless fleets of barges, some towed 
by horses, some by propellors, all kinds and varieties of steamers, passenger-boats, 
barges, and tugs " of low degree ;" all manner of nondescript craft — shapeless, heavy- 
laden, broad-bowed — whose native element seems to be the canal, and whose l>)uild is 
such that they look ill-adapted for navigation in more boisterous waters. Yet these 
ponderous boats have made voyages from the F'ar North and the Western lakes ; they 
will float through Lake Champlain to Albany; still on, down the Hudson to New 
York, or on the broad St. Lawrence to Quebec. The traffic on the canal is such 
as in itself to give some idea of the commercial importance of Montreal. Here 
and there the monotony of trading-vessels is broken by the snow-white sails of a 
pleasure-yacht from the city ; or some enthusiastic angler, absorbed in the nirvana of 
bait-fishing, sits in a skift' that never rocks but with the ripple of the passing steamer. 
There is something soothing in the intense calm of this canal navigation with which the 
scenery both on the canal banks and among the shipping is thoroughly in harmony. 
It is, as Shelley says, "a metaphor of peace." As the steamer passes between the 
locks, it is pleasant to go ashore and watch the canal from a little distance. The 
houses we pass are built with the usual high-pitched roofs of French-Canada, the 
slanting eaves projecting in front. All round us are the level fields extending to the 
foot of the canal embankment. The canal itself is invisible, and we see steamers and 
barges moving along, as it were, on dry ground ! 

At Lachine it will be well to land and stroll awhile amid the scenery of this quiet 
suburb of the great city, with its reminiscences of Robert Cavalier, Sieur de la 
Salle, and its association with so many vicissitudes in the history of the heroic and 
saintly founders of New France. In the words ''La Chine'' we have a record of the 
belief common to so many American explorers, from Columbus downwards, that through 
America lay the highway to the Orient, a belief which the increasing facilities of 



THE LOWER OTTAWA i8i 

communication with the Pacific Coast will yet redeem from the list of delusions. 
Lachine is a quaint and picturesque old town, of some 4000 inhabitants ; the houses 
with tall, steep gables, dormer windows and square stone chimneys ; the streets gay with 
visitors from Montreal, a considerable number of whom reside during the summer 
months at Lachine, whence they come and go to their places of business in the city by 
the railway. Nestling among trees of immemorial growth are the parish church, and 
the convent, amid its high-walled gardens. The former is a handsome edifice, whose 
twin spires, gracefully decorated, rise high above the surrounding streets. The style is 
that modification of Renaissance-Gothic which the French brought from Europe, and on 
which French Jesuitism — the Jesuitism of the Martyrs, not of the political intriguers — 
has impressed the character of its glorious traditions. 

Before the canal was built, Lachine was a place of greater commercial importance 
than at present ; it was then the trading emporium for Montreal, to which was conveyed 
all the merchandise from the Western centres, and even the cargoes of skins and furs 
which the trappers of the Hudson's Bay Company had collected during the winter. 
Hither came, week by week, the battcaux, or large, flat-bottomed vessels, shaped some- 
what like " bonnes," or lumbermen's boats ; these arrived regularly with goods and 
passengers from Kingston and the head of the Bay of Ouinte, and from the lake ports 
farther west. 

The Sulpician Fathers, who were the feudal lords of the island of Montreal, 
were anxious to protect their new settlement of Vlllemarie by an outpost held 
from them by military tenure. Hence they gladly granted a tract of land near the 
rapids above Montreal to the gallant Ijut ill-fated La Salle. He remained in possession 
only long enough to found a village fortified rudely with palisades, and to name it 
" Lachine," in accordance with tlie dominant idea of his adventurous life — a passage 
across the Continent to the Indies. After La Salle's departure, the village of Lachine 
conveniently situated for the carrying-trade of Montreal, continued to flourish until, in 
1689, the terrible blow of its destruction by the Iroquois had the effect of overthrowing 
the French schemes of American conquest for a time, and reducing their tenure of 
Canadian soil to the space within the ramparts of Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal. 
The first aggressive march by Champlain on the Iroquois had proved not only a crime, 
but a mistake. This policy was that of the Jesuits and the successive Governors of 
New France. It consisted in converting and arming, as allies and proselytes, one Indian 
tribe against the other. Whatever may be thought of the morality of this policy, it 
might, no doubt, have proved successful, had the French only been so fortunate as to 
choose for their allies the more warlike Indian tribes. LInhappily, ever since Cham- 
plain's expedition up the Ottawa, he and his successors selected as their friends the 
feebler and less military races — the Ottawas, Hurons and Algonquins ; by which step, as 
well as by their own repeated acts of violence, they drew on themselves the relentless hatred 



i82 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

of the powerful confederacy known as the Iroquois, later called the Six-Nation Indians. 
Up to the time of the American Revolution, these savages maintained, in greater efficiency 
than has been known elsewhere among their wandering and disunited race, that military 
organization which seems the only approach to civilization of which the Indian in his 
native condition is capable. The Iroquois were to the Algonquins and Hurons what the 
Zulus are to the other negro races of East Africa. Those virtues and physical gifts 
which belong to savage life, and are apt to sicken or become extinct by contact with 
civilization, the Iroquois possessed. Their fidelity to friends is unstained by any record 
of such treachery as was shown by the Huron allies of Daulac des Ormeaux ; their 
savage practices of purposed cruelty proved how much the possession of reason enabled 
the human brutes, who tore the scalps from their still living prisoners, to degrade 
themselves below the level of the wolf and bear, the emblems of their tribe. With 
the recklessness of a lofty ambition, the French leaders had resolved to extend the 
dominions of the Catholic Church and the French King far in the rear and to the 
southward of the English settlements on the Atlantic seaboard. In the prosecution of 
this grand scheme they drew on themselves the hatred not only of the Iroquois whose 
lands they invaded, but of the enemies of their own race and religion by whom these 
wolves of the wilderness were armed and hounded on. The year 1689 saw New 
France, under the rule of the reckless Marquis de Denonville, engaged in an Indian 
war along her whole line of settlements. The Iroquois had received great provo- 
cation. The Governor, by means of the Jesuit missionaries, whom he made his uncon- 
scious accomplices, had induced a number of Iroquois chiefs to meet him in peaceful 
conference. These he had seized and sent to France, that their toil as galley-slaves 
might amuse the Royal vanity. The Iroquois had scorned to revenge this perfidy on 
the missionaries, who were sent in safety from their camp. But a terrible retribution 
was at hand. Nearly two centuries ago, on the night of August 5th, 1689, as the 
inhabitants of Lachine lay sleeping, amid a storm of hail upon the lake which eftectually 
disguised the noise of their landing, a force of many hundred warriors, armed, and 
besmeared with war-paint, made a descent upon Lachine. Through the night they noise- 
lessly surrounded every building in the village. With dawn the fearful war-whoop awoke 
men, women and children, to their doom of torture and death. The village was fired ; 
by its light in the early morn, the horror-stricken inhabitants of Montreal could see from 
their fortifications the nameless cruelties which preceded the massacre. It k; said the 
Iroquois indulged so freely in the fire-water of the Lachine merchants, that hatl the de- 
fenders of Villemarie been prompt to seize the favourable moment, the drunken wretches 
might have been slaughtered like swine. Paralyzed by the horrors they had witnessed, 
the French let the occasion slip ; at nightfall the savages withdrew to the mainland, not, 
however, without signifying by yells, repeated to the number of ninety, how many prisoners 
they carried away. From the ramparts of Villemarie, and amid the blackened ruins of 



THE LOWER OTTAWA 183 

Lachine, the garrison watched the fires on the opposite shore, kindled for what pur[)oses 
of nameless cruelty they knew too well. The fate of Lachine marks the lowest point 
in the fortunes of New France ; by what deeds of heroism they were retrieved, is not 
the least glorious page in Canadian history. 

Leaving the village of Lachine, it will be well to walk some distance along the. 
lower road which skirts the river. Here, amid sylvan shades of pleasant retirement, we 
ma)' enjoy the Lucretian satisfaction of viewing the distant rapids. Beyond the point 
of a long, low-lying ridge of rocky islet, the river is white with wrathful foam, and the 
spray clouds rise when a steamer is gallantly breasting the torrent. Meanwhile, the 
robins are singing from the maple trees, and the cows — those optimists of the animal 
creation — are looking placidly forth on the rapids as if they knew that all was for the 
best ! We pass a huge lumbering but not unpicturesque farmer's wagon, laden with 
grain for the mill to which the farmer's wife — a comely Canadienne, in the usual loose 
jacket and inevitable white hat — is driving a horse that will certainly not run away. 
The mill is a feature in the landscape worth observing — a cjuadrangular stone tower 
broad at the base, its lines converging at the top to support the old-fashioned, cruciform 
wind-sails, whose sfreat arms move through the air like those of the g^iants Don (Juixote 
assailed. Surrounded by spreading trees, and close to this beautiful river scenery, 
the old windmill, weather-beaten and mellowed by its seventy years' service, has an 
air of rustic grace not to be found in more recent and more pretentious structures. 
It seems that there was at one time a dispute between the owner of this mill and 
the Fathers of St. Sulpice, who claimed the sole right of milling on the island, 
and that the cause was decided in favour of the miller, who was, however, forbidden 
to rebuild his mill should it chance to be destroyed. Hence it was that he re- 
paired the wooden structure by surrounding it with the stone wall which gives it its 
present fortress-like appearance. 

From Lachine may be seen in the far distance the Lidian village of Caughnawaga, 
where, civilized and Christianized, some five hundred descendants of the Iroquois de- 
stroyers of Lachine dream away their harmless and useless lives. This, and such as 
this, on other Indian reserves, is the result of all the heroism chronicled in the 
volumes of the Relations dcs Jcsuitcs ! By martyrdom, by endurance of privations and 
cruelties compared with which martyrdom might seem a merciful relief, they gained 
their object. They converted at last the terrible Iroquois enemy ! And with what 
result ? So much and such noble effort, only to be wasted on a race fast becoming 
extinct ; a race which, a centur\- hence, will have left no memorial to the Canada of 
the future, save where here and there our cities and rivers recall the strange music 
of the Indian names ! 

We steam along the northern shore of Lake St. Louis past the Isle Derval, a portion 
of the lake where the colour of the purplish-brown water of the Ottawa may be distin- 



1 84 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 




OLD WINDMILL ON LACHINE ROAD, AND DISTANT VIEW OF LACHINE RAPIDS. 



guished from the green tinge of the St. Lawrence. Of course, this is not observable under 
all conditions of the atmosphere, but on bright, sunshin)' days, there can be no doubt 
whatever that this difference in colour can be distinctly traced. The dark, purple tinge 
characterizes the imperial river, which, from as yet almost unexplored sources, stretching 
to the water-shed of Hudson's Bay, from tributary rivers extending east and west and 
south, through many a wide-spreading lake, and over cataracts lifting their columns of 



THE LOWER OTTAWA 



185 



spray to the clouds of heaven, past the metropolitan city of Canada, and through valleys 
and amid hills and islands rich in every imaginable type of nature's loveliness — here meets 
at last its equal — here blends its waters, though as yet distinct in colour, with its own 

legitimate sister, the great 
lake stream of the St. Law- 
rence. Swiftly we steam 
on, crossing Lake St. Louis, 
where steamers are passmg 
and le-passmg, and the gay 
yachts of Montreal spread 
their white wincfs to the 
breeze The wateis of 
Lake St Louis are shallow, 
and the shores flat, and 




CANAL LOCK, AND RAILWAY BRIDGE AT STE. ANNE'S. 



fringed with dusky woods, presenting no marked characteristics, except the huo-e o-uide 
piers erected on the way to Ste. Anne's, to mark and preserve the channel. Looming 
before us in the mist, we can see, as it stretches from the mainland of Ontario to 
the Isle of Montreal, the great bridge of the Grand Trunk Railway. In order to avoid 
the rapids at the debouchenient of the Ottawa, we enter a canal close to Ste. Anne's 
and the abutment of the Grand Trunk bridge. This canal is about the eighth of a 



i86 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 



mile long, and has a single lock near the railway bridge. It was constructed in place 
of one built as early as 1816, and rebuilt ' 




in 1833 by the Ottawa P^orwarding Com- 
pany, w^ho made some difficulty in admit- 
ting the passage of vessels not connected 
with their own business. This caused so 
much inconvenience, that the Leiiislature 
of Upper Canada took the matter m hand 
and built the present canal at Ste. Anne's 
Those sentimentalists who last centur) 
refused to see beauty in industrial build 
ings and works, who wept 
over steamships profaning 
the solitudes of Cumber- 

W '^WF'^ \\ATCH TOWER. 

land lakes, and could see ___ 

nothmg picturesque 
in a building that 
■was not a castle or at 
least a ruin, would de- 
termine on principle, and 
beforehand, that there could 
be nothing attractive about 
a mere railway bridge. Yet 
let those who do not refuse 
to see Nature, as faithfully 
interpreted by Art, consider 
how even this magnificent 
lake scenery is enhanced bv 
this work, no less magni- 
ficent, of human enterprise 
5 and skill. On six- 

teen square row- 
ers of stone-work, 
each massive as 
the keep of a fort- 
ress, is supported 
the viaduct which gives passage to Canada's most important railway. As the steamer 
passes under with lowered funnel, we look back on the lake and the mainland be^'ond it, 
where, far over the St. Lawrence, the summits, indistinct and dim, of the Adirondack 




REMAINS OF ANCIENT CASTLE, 



THE LOWER OTTAWA 187 

Mountains, mingle witii the clouds. At our left are the rapids — not deep, but neces- 
sary to be avoided on account of their shallowness. Here, on rude rafts, stand the 
shad-fishers, ready to spear or net the fish which, visiting these rapids in shoals, come to 
Avatch for food. Poised on the precarious footing of a couple of planks fastened 
together and tossing on the waves, they plunge and replunge the net, not seldom 
bringing to light the sparkling and leaping fish, whose capture is to these poor habitans 
a source of no little gain. We pass under the bridge and through the lock, where a 
number of the country-folk are lounging, to greet the steamer and her cargo of pleasure- 
seekers. The male liabitaiifs dress, if not exactl)- picturesque, is peculiar, and in har- 
mony with the hot weather of August. As a rule no coat is worn ; waistcoat and 
shirt-sleeves and loose, baggy trousers, form the whole costume, and it is dc rigciir that 
both hands be kept in the trousers' pockets. The head-dress is a hat with narrow rim 
and high, conical top, similar to those popularly believed to be worn by magicians 
and witches! With them is a group of apple-women, healthy-looking dames, with short 
kirtles, 'kerchiefed neck, and broad, white hats. Here we find for sale green apples of last 
season, yet fresh and in good condition, and paper bags full of delicious grapes. Once 
more we disembark to stroll through the village, consisting of a group of those 
pretty Lower Canadian houses no poverty can make unpicturesque. In the midst 
of these is the church, a structure where the substratum of Gothic is varied with 
the features so strangely adopted from classical architecture by the art of the Re- 
naissance. At the shrine of good Ste. Anne, the pious voyagciir, about to encounter 
the perils of lumbering or river-driving, comes to pay his vows and leave his modest 
offering to her of whom the mediaeval poet sang : 

" Anna parit tres Marias, 
Ut pr.edixit Esai'as." 

We enter the church. Jean or Baptiste is kneeling reverently. Keenly alive to the misery 
of parting with a cent of his hard-earned wages on all other occasions, here he is liberal. 
It is a scene that reminds one of the Middle Ages, nay, of more primitive faiths, before 
the aees called Christian. 

Having passed through the village, we reach the ruins of a castle built to defend 
the island at this point, and evidently once a fortalice of considerable importance. 
On the brow of a hill commanding an extensive view of the lake, is a circular 
watch-tower, loop-holed for musketry, whose broken embrasures once held cannon 
controlling the landing and approaches to the castle beneath. Lower down and 
close to the landing-place are two castles, built after the model of fortresses of 
the Middle Ages — in each a lofty keep or central tower, quadrangular, without 
windows, save the narrow aperture through which the arquebuse of the defenders 



i8S 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 



-^— ^nl"^ -^ 






might aim securely at the lurking Iroquois without. The rest of the castle consists 

of high walls enclosing space sufficient to 
shelter the -women and children of 
the settlement m case of m\asion, 



and this again protected b) flanking 
turrets Both buildings are without 
ornament, save that with which Time 
has in\ested the ciumbling rums; 
gaunt and gra), they stand, amid the 
most peaceful scenes that our world 
can show, the memouals of a Past 





which though not two 
centuiies gone by, al- 
read\ seems to belong 
to the Middle Ages ! 
Such a fortress as this 
would have been proof against any artillery which raiders from the New England colonies 
could have brought against New France ; against the Iroquois it was impregnable. 



BACK RIVER BRIDGE, AND SHAD FISHING. 



THE LOWER OTTAWA 189 

Before us, as the steamer leaves Ste. Anne's, lies the first of those expansions of the 
River Ottawa which so frequently occur throughout its entire course, the Lake of 
Two Mountains. The larger Mountain w'as named "Calvary" by the piety of the first 
settlers. In the continual presence of the terrible dangers which threatened those who, 
as one of them said of the Montreal settlement, had thrust their hand into the wolf's 
den, the founders of New France sought everywhere to impress on the land of their 
adoption the traces of that religion which was their chief comfort. At its summit were 
seven chapels — the memorials of the mystic seven of St. John's vision — the scene of 
many a pilgrimage, where gallant cavalier and high-born lady from their fastness at 
Villemarie toiled, side by side, up the same weary height. 

Near this we visit the pretty village of Oka, whence the Indian occupants have 
been wisely removed by the Dominion Government to Muskoka. Their cottages still 
line the shore beneath the shade of ancient elm trees ; a large cross close to the landing 
invites the contemplation of the pious, while summer-houses and other garniture for 
pleasure-making are ready for the holiday folk w^ho crowd to this popular summer resort 
in skiff and steamer. To this class belong the youthful pair whom a venerable gray 
horse conveys — neither he nor they being at all in a hurry — along the Oka road in one of 
those ancient covered calcchcs used in this part of Canada. The young lady is driving ; 
the "hood" of the vehicle covers both of them from a passing shower or from the gaze 
of too curious eyes. 

We steam across the Lake of Two Mountains. It is an irregularly-shaped expanse 
of water, in length twenty-four miles, and from three to four miles wide. Calm as are 
these summer lakes, an experience of a sudden squall shows how the usually placid 
waters can be lashed into furious waves. Suddenly the sky is overclouded, the moun- 
tains on the shore seem to have withdrawn into the dim distance, the woods are swathed 
in mist, and quick and sharp descends upon our deck and on the waves around us the 
white electric rain. We meet one of those huge barges similar to those we saw in the 
Lachine Canal. How its heavy hulk rolls and labours while the surf breaks over it ! 
But the strong boat is seaworthy, and the steam-tug in charge tows it heavily on. 

The country on our left consists of the counties of Vaudreuil and Soulanges which, 
though on the Ontario side of the Ottawa, are part of the I^rovince of Quebec. In 
these, as on the opposite side of the river, the French language and institutions prevail. 
In the seigniory of Rigaud, near the upper portion of the Lake ot Two Mountains, 
is a remarkable mound, the " Montague Ste. Magdelaine," at whose top is a quad- 
rangular area of some acres, covered with stone boulders arranged by a strange 
caprice of nature to resemble a freshly-ploughed field — whence the place is called 
" Piiu'c de mcrcts." From underground, the murmur as of flowing water can be 
distinctly heard ; but all attempts to discover the cause are said to have failed, though 
the earth has been dug to the depth of many feet. At the foot of this moun- 



I go 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 




LOWER OTTAWA SCENES. 



THE LOWER OTTAWA 



191 



ll|ii|l|lili!!tii!|!'''''i?f 



liil" iP'lill' 



li - ; 




tain on the lake 
shore, beside the 
mouth of the Ri- 
viere a la Graisse, 
is the pleasant lit- 
tle French village 
of Rigaud. 

At no great 
distance from the 
north-eastern side 
of the Lake of 
Two Mountains 
are the villages 

o 

of St. Eustache, 
Ste. Scholastique 
and St. Benoit — 
scenes of conflict 
between " Patriots" 
and " Loyalists " 
in the troublous 
times of '^^l' when 
passions were ex- 
cited and gallant 
citizens were in 
arms against each 
other in feuds, 
which, thanks to 
subsequent wise 
ofovernment and 
a better state of 
feeling, are now 
happily as extinct 
as the wars with 
the Iroquois. 

Near the upper 
expansion of the 
lake is the vil- 
lage and headland 
called " Pointe aux 



192 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 




McGILLIVRAY'S CHUTE, 
RIVER ROUGE. 



\ 



f I'/ 



Anglais," whence we look 

forth over the broad expanse -»* ^ > 4^,. 

of desolate moor, shallows 

and bush - covered islets in 

the foreground, and stretching far and wide over the horizon from the north shore, 

the duskv shades of the Laurentian hills, desolate and forbiddino;, as it were a 

wall between us and the fertile lands beyond them. 

At Carillon the steamer's course is once more barred by rapids, to avoid which a 
canal has been constructed ; but passengers by the mail-boat land at Carillon and 
take train to Grenville, a distance of twelve miles, whence another steamer proceeds 
without farther interruption to Ottawa. Opposite Carillon, at Point Fortune, the river 
becomes the boundary line between the two Provinces. At the Chute au Blondeau is 
another canal an eighth of a mile in length, and a dam has here been thrown across the 
river, which so pens back the waters that only a passage of three-quarters of a mile in 
length is now needed to reach the higher level above the chute. Beside the Long Sault 
Rapid is the Grenville Canal, excavated for the most part through solid rock, and leading 
to the village of Grenville, a distance of six miles. These three canals were constructed, 
like that of the Rideau, by the Imperial Government for military purposes. Happih-, 
there is no prospect of their being needed for such ; and even should necessity arise, 
their usefulness is a thing of the past, superseded, as they now are, by the opening of 
the St. Lawrence Canals and the Grand Trunk Railway on the front, as well as by the 



THE LOWER OTTAWA 193 

new lines of railway to the north, which make our intercommunication secure from any 
foe. Down these three rapids — the Carillon, Long Sault, and Chute au Blondeau — the 
lumbermen descend on their cribs of timber. Formidable as this feat looks, it is 
frequently accomplished by travellers who adventure in company with the raftsmen, 
and seldom suffer worse consequences than a wetting. 

In these rapids Samuel de Champlain nearly lost his life at the commencement of 
his first expedition up the Ottawa from Montreal to Allumette. The forest along the 
river bank was so impenetrably tangled, that he and his party were fain to force their 
way through the rapids, pushing and drawing their canoes from one point to another. 
While thus engaged Champlain fell, and would have perished in the eddy of the rapids, 
as has many a gallant lumberman since, had he not been saved by the friendly help of 
a boulder against which he was carried. 

The Pass of the Long Sault, on the western shore of these rapids, is memora- 
ble as the scene of patriotic self-devotion not unworthy to be compared with the 
achievements of a Decius or a Leonidas. In the year 1660 the French colonists of 
Villemarie and Quebec learned, with dismay, that a united effort for their destruction 
was about to be made by the whole force of the Iroquois Confederacy. Then Daulac 
des Ormeaux, a youthful nobleman, with sixteen companions, resolved to strike a blow 
which, at the sacrifice of their own lives, might break the power and arrest the 
progress of the savage foe. Like the Roman general of old, they devoted themselves 
to their doom in a religious spirit, and with the full rites of the Church in whose 
defence they were about to die. Where then, as now, the roar of the Long Sault 
Rapids blended with the sigh of the wind through the forest, they entrenched them- 
selves, with some two-score Huron allies who, however, deserted them in the hour of 
danger. They had but an old fortification of palisades, which they endeavoured to 
strengthen. While so engaged, the Iroquois fell upon them. Through successive 
attacks they held at bay the five hundred painted savages who swarmed, tomahawk in 
hand, up to the very loopholes of the fort, only to be driven back by the resolute fire 
of its defenders, leaving among the heaps of slain their chief. Repulsed again and 
again, the Iroquois deferred the main attack till the arrival of reinforcements, who were 
marching on Montreal. For three days Daulac des Ormeaux and his handful of 
gallant followers held their post against the swarming hordes. At length, overwhelmed 
by numbers and exhausted by hunger, thirst and sleeplessness, they fell, fighting to the 
last, leaving but four survivors, three of whom, already mortally wounded, were burned 
at once, while the fourth was reserved for torture. But the Iroquois had paid dearly 
for their success. They thought no more — for a time, at least — of attacking the more 
formidable armaments and fortifications of Montreal. New France was saved by this 
deed of patriotic self-devotion. Sacred to all time should be the spot which such 
heroism has ennobled ! 



194 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 




(H.I.Ml'SI-:; Ol' nil': LUWliK Dl TAW A— rut; lA'MiiliU IKAlib:. 



THE LOWER OTTAWA 



195 



At Grenville we again take the steamer, anxious to penetrate behind the wall of moun- 
tain ridge which, undulating along the eastern bank of the river, seems to forbid access 
to the country beyond. This is the Laurentian range, composed of that gneiss which 
contains the earliest fossil remains of animal life as yet recognized by geologists. We 
procure a canoe and a guide at Grenville, with the farther necessary equipment of a 
wagon, wherewith we make our way along the main road to Pointe au Chene, on the 
River Rouge, above the rapids called " McGillivray's Chute." In its passage through the 
barriers of Laurentian hills, the Rouge courses over a continuous series of rapids to its 
















s^ar 



RUNNING THh. RAPlDb. 



junction, twelve miles distant, with the Ottawa. But the beauty of the scenery in this 
region of mountain and lake well repays the trouble of travel or portage. As we make 
our way among these hills, so sternly repellant from a distance, we meet fertile valleys, 
rapidly being cleared and made into cultivated farms. We have camped in the woods, 
glad of shelter, for there is a touch of frost in the early autumn air. Below, where we 
stand ready to launch our canoe, are the rapids of McGillivray's Chute, plunging and 
eddying over the wave-worn boulders ; above and beyond, the calm expanse of the River 
Rouee, mirrorine the mountain, bright with the forest foliage kindled into rich red 
gold colour by last night's frost, with here and there the more vivid scarlet of the 
soft maples. For some miles we ascend the river in our canoe, which, on our return, 
we have to guide through rapids, the surges foaming around us as we pass swiftly 
through the fretful waters in the shadow of the silent hills. 



lyO 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 



From the banks of the Rouge our canoe is carried to the shores of Lake Coman- 
deau, or " Papineau," as it has been named after the famous leader, near whose home 
,at Montebello its outlet, the Kinonge, flows into the Ottawa. We drive by a very 
tolerable road, through the hill-country, past a mountain farm at the head of Lake 
Comandeau. The homestead and farm buildings are log-houses ; the land is roughly 
cultivated. Beyond it lies the lake, dark-blue in the shadow of the many-coloured 
hills which stretch far away into the dimness of the autumn morning. We prepare to 
launch upon the lake ; upon the thickly-wooded shore our canoe lies turned up in the 




MOUNTAIN FARM. 



sun to dry, to have the seams gummed before starting. Near by is another canoe 
about to leave the shore, while farther off on the lake is a third midway between us and 
the opposite side. Beyond, the mountains, dusky green with shadowy woods, melt away 
into the morning mists. We launch our canoe ; we speed along over the stirless water 
mirroring the hills and woods, amid islands aglow with the gay livery of the forest. We 
reach, far off, an open expanse of lake, where, amid the shallower waters, the speckled 
trout are wont to bask. The hills in the distance are dusky purple. Near us is an 
islet — the trout-fisher's favourite haunt ; overhead, a huge, dome-like rock, stained with 
all manner of shacies — blue, russet and vellow — under the encriistintr lichen ; at its side, 



THE LOWER OTTAWA 



197 



high above the yellow larches, the tall pines throw their shadows over the lake. This 
beautiful sheet of water is about ten miles long- ; its surface is diversified by numerous 
small islands, and the mountain scenery amid which it lies gives a boldness and sub- 
limity unknown to Southern lakes, with their low-lying shores. 

Again pursuing our journey up the Ottawa, we pass L'Orignal — the county seat of 
Prescott and Russell Counties — at which village three of our passengers leave us for 
the medicinal Caledonia Springs, a distance of some nine miles inland. These springs 
are said to have been first indicated by the multitudes of wild pigeons that gathered 




%% 



O.N IHE PORTAGE— LAKE CO.MAiNUEAU. 



near the spot. Farther on, upon the Quebec side, deep in the shadow of the elm-wood, 
rise the towers of what seems one of the antique chateaux of Old France. This is the 
home of Papineau, the leader, through stormy times, of French-Canadian Liberalism ; 
one whose eloquence was as remarkable as his personal character was worthy of admi- 
ration. The feuds of those days are extinct ; we can afford to remember, with pride, 
the virtues of one of Canada's ablest sons. The beauty of this chateau of Montebello 
has been worthily celebrated by Frechette in the noble tribute which his muse has 
addressed to the memory of Papineau. 



igS 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 



We sail on, upon the sombre bosom of the stream, our course varied by the 
alternating narrowness or expan- 
sion of the Ottawa ; sometimes 
among- islands slumberous with 
dark verdure ; anon meeting a 
fleet of broad river-barges laden 
with the piled-up lumber, and 
towed down stream by the 
steam-tugs which impart their 
own quick motion to the inert 
mass ; or again steaming through 
wide, shallow reaches, where the 
fisher plies his solitary canoe, 
and the Canadian boat-song re- 
calls its familiar but beauti- 
ful embodiment by Moore. On 
our ricfht is the dcbonclicmcnt 
of the Riviere du Lievre — a 
stream of great importance to 

the lumber trade — which, through a course of 350 miles, drains an area greater in 
extent than some European kingdoms. 

About a mile from the Capital we pass the mouth of the Gatineau, the mightiest 




MONTEBELLO— HOME OF PAPINEAU. 




A TOW OF LUMBER BARGES. 



THE LOWER OTTAWA 



199 




TROUT FISHING ON LAKE COMANDEAU. 



of the many tributaries of the Ottawa, which, for seven miles from its outlet, is 
rendered unnavigable by rapids. But we are already within the precincts of the city, 
and ciisembark, after a trip which has opened new phases of picturesque beauty in 
a country hitherto — however well known to commerce — but too little known to art. 




NORTH SHORE OF THE OTTAWA. 



200 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 







OTTAWA - i'AKUAMKNT RUILlUNCiS, 1 KU^M MA.lUK'S lULl. 



OTTAWA: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIl'E 



20I 



^^,N 







vii^- 






f»il-l5 



A FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE CAPITAL. 



OTTAWA. 



/CANADA, young as she is, could furnish material for a very lively chapter on the 
^^ vicissitudes of capitals. Strategically posted at Niagara, tossed backwards and for- 
wards, shuttlecock fashion, between jealous Toronto, Kingston, and Quebec, pelted with 
paving-stones and burned out of their Chamber by an exasperated mob at Montreal, her 
legislators, thanks to the direct selection of the Queen herself, found refuge in a certain 
modest village-town, perched meekly on high bluffs and intervening valleys, between the 
spray and roar of two headlong river-falls. The town of " By " became the city of Ottawa, 
the peripatetic carpet-bag existence of government officials ceased, and the nomad tribes 
of the various departments settled down permanently under their own vine and fig-tree 
by the broad stream which gives its name to the spot. 



202 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

But the Ottawa has a past, and to the hereditary enmity existing between two 
of the three great famiHes of Indians in North America east of the Mississippi — the 
Iroquois and the Algonquins — an enmity carefully fostered by the greater rival powers of 
England and France, added to the allurements of commerce in furs, is due the important 
position held by this river in the life and history of Canada. 

For over i6o years prior to the memorable 8th of September, 1760, when with the 
keys of Montreal the Marquis De Vaudreuil surrendered all Canada to General 
Amherst, the blood of Wolfe and Montcalm having just one year before sio-ned the 
deeds which gave Quebec to England, the " Kit-chi-sippi," the " great river," as it was 
called by its dusky voyageurs, was the main route by which the store of furs, gathered 
through the long winter from beaver-dam and haunt of moose and otter, martin, and 
silver fox, found their toilful way to the big ships of the traders at Tadoussac, Quebec, 
and Montreal. How cruel the history of this long line of mighty waters, these ever- 
boiling rapids, tremendous falls, and wide-spreading lakes, is told in colours of blood 
in the writings of those who lived through the terrible period when civilization was 
making its slow, sure way into this virgin world. 

To secure the valuable peltry trade, the best efforts of New England and New 
York, south of the lakes, and of the " company of merchant adventurers of England, 
trading in Hudson's Bay," were directed. New France was not behindhand, and her 
daring cotcreurs de bois penetrated far and wide through the vast tract between Hud- 
son's Bay and the lakes. This, the cold North, was the great fur-bearing land, and 
through nearly its whole extent ran the mighty stream of the " Outaouais," as tlieir 
French allies called the natives. By this noble stream, difficult and dangerous as was 
its course, did the Algonquins — of whom they, with the Hurons, formed part — from 
their distant territory south of Lake Superior, hold communication with the P""rench 
settlement at Montreal. Relentlessly driven from the Lower Ottawa by the systematic 
incursions of the terrible Iroquois, the Ottawas traversed their native woods and waters 
in fear and trembling. The better portion of their journey down the " Grand River," 
from the falls of the Chaudiere (where the city of Ottawa now stands), was one of 
incessant danger from their traditionary foes. Up the river they were comparatively 
safe, for the natural difficulties of the turbulent stream made access so hard and retreat 
so perilous, that the Iroquois preferred to await them at the falls, or to attack them 
still farther below, when the most desperate fighting would not ensure safety for their 
hard-earned cargoes of pelts or secure themselves from the crudest of tortures and death 
at the hands of their dread foes. In 1693 a three years' accumulation of beaver-skins 
lay at Michillimackinac, their main quarters at the head of Lake Huron, and the Ottawa 
was so closely barred by the Iroquois that no effort could be made to take them down. 
The loss of its one source of revenue was nearly ruinous to the young colony. At last 
Count Frontenac, the Governor, caused a strong escort to be got together, and the 



OTTAWA: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIJ^E 203 

arrival at Quebec of two hundred canoes, all laden with furs, told that the long blockade 
was broken. 

Up this river, in 1613, Champlain passed, in the vain hope of finding an open north- 
west passage to the spice lands of Cathay, till, at an Indian settlement 125 miles above 
the falls, he learned that his reported salt sea was a myth. Three years later he 
returned, passing into Lake Huron and so to Lake Simcoe, where he joined the 
Algonquins in a campaign against the Iroquois, the return journey from Lake Simcoe 
to Montreal taking forty days. 

But years went by and great changes came. In 1800, Philemon Wright, farmer, 
of Woburn, Massachusetts. " having a large family to provide for," came, after several 
visits of exploration, the first of which was made four years previously, back to the 
foot of the Chaudiere, the " big kettle," bringing twenty-five men with mill-irons, 
axes, scythes, hoes, fourteen horses, eight oxen, seven sleighs, and five families of 
women and children, together with a number of barrels of " clear pork, destitute of 
bone," of his own raising. For the magnificent sum of twenty dollars, the Indians 
withdrew their objections to his settlement, and finding that their claims to the land 
would not be entertained, a certain insinuating appeal for an additional thirty dollars 
being refused, the poor wretches quietly bowed to the strong will of the Great Father 
across the sea, created the invader a chief, kissed him, dined with him, and made a 
compact, kept thenceforward with the honesty of the uncontaminated. 

Then followed a long line of busy, useful years, all tending to the improvement of 
his new domain. Surveys, road-making, clearings, plantings, reapings and building went 
steadily on, till in twenty-four years he had cleared 3000 acres and had 756 acres in grain 
and roots, and in 1839 died at the ripe old age of seventy-nine, the father of the town 
of Hull, on the north side of the river. 

But the south side, whose rough, rocky cliffs had offered no attractions to 
the adventurous pioneer, was destined to far outshine his settlement. One of his 
employes, named Nicholas Sparks, was lucky enough to purchase, for a trifling sum, 
a large quantity of the unprized land ; and when, as a strategic issue of the 
American troubles of 181 2-1 5, it was determined by the Imperial Government to con- 
struct a line of canals to connect the St. Lawrence with the lakes zii'a the River 
Ottawa, in order to afford means of communication with tide-water free from inimical 
interruption, Mr. Sparks sold lot on lot to the Government and to enterprising settlers, 
and cleared about half a million sterling. So '' Bytown " arose, taking its name from the 
colonel of the Royal Engineers, to whom the construction of this great work had been 
entrusted. For some years it grew and prospered with the pecuniary aid of the mili- 
tary, the canal labourers, and the lumber trade — the starting of the latter having been 
due to the indefatigable Wright. Tradesmen, mechanics, doctors, lawyers, and all the 
constituents of a thriving community gathered rapidly, and in 1851 the town boasted 



204 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 




UNDER DUFFERIN BRIDGE. 



eight thousand inhabitants, and the place still continued to grow, till in 1865 the seat 
of Government was transferred to it, and Bytown, thenceforward Ottawa, became the 
capital. 

The city of to-day is a city of varied elements. There is the life of the Govern- 
ment and the life of the river ; the race, language, religion, manners of the iDiciai 
rdgiinc and those of that which succeeded it, two streams of dissimilar character in source, 
which are content to flow in one channel amicably, but unmixed. The cit)' may prac- 
tically be said to consist of one long line of business houses, backed by ganglia of 
residences which extend some three miles westward to the Chaudiere Falls and the 



OTTAWA: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 



205 



city of Hull, and eastward towards the falls of the Rideau and the village of New 
Edinburgh, on the right bank of that river. In its centre it is known as Sparks Street, 
the name being taken from that of the actual . founder of the settlement, where are situ- 
ated the leading business and mercantile establishments. 

The key to the main place of the city is a point where two converging bridges 
span the Rideau Canal. Standing here and looking west, one sees to the left the old 
" Sappers' Bridge," a solid stone structure built by the military as part of the canal 
works. To the right is the " Dufferin Bridge," a new, well-designed viaduct of iron, 
which gives access to Wellington Street, a thoroughfare of noble width, containing the 
handsome stone buildings of various banks, and insurance and railway offices. Fronting 
this street is the long, low stretch of graceful stone and iron railing with its massive 
gates of fine iron-work which encloses Parliament Square and the magnificent piles of 
the Government buildings. Immediately in front of the two bridges is the new Post 
Office and Custom House — a large and elegant stone edifice in the style of the Re- 
naissance — which is one of the architectural features of the city. 

Turning his back upon the Post Office and looking east, the visitor sees a broad 
roadway — Rideau Street — extending, on a gentle acclivit)-, a couple of miles. This street 
is lined with stores and private houses, and on either side cluster systems of streets 
containing residences — those on the left, sloping down toward the river, being known as 







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POST OFFICE, AND DUFFERIN AND SAPPERS' BRIDGE. 



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FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 




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OTTAWA: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 



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HEAD OF THE LOCKS— RIDEAU CANAL. 



Lower Town, while on the higher grovmd to the right lies the fashionable district, by no 
misnomer called Sandy Hill. Here are comfortable and often handsome and extensive 
villas, the more distant of which command charming views of the adjacent country and 
the valley of the Rideau River. 

Here, also, occup)'ing a considerable extent of ground, is the rifle range, a site of 
some importance, owing to the fact that it is the scene of the annual meetings of the 
Dominion Rifle Association, and that before its twenty targets the best shots of the 
country compete, selecting from their number the team which is yearly sent to contest at 
Wimbledon with the crack shots of Great Britain. During the week of the shooting-, the 
city is in a state of martial furore ; coats oi red, dark-green and gray, are seen every- 
where ; the white tents of the association and of the different competitors picturesquely 



208 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 



dot the ground ; and the incessant crack of the rifle, the strains of military bands, the 
bright dresses of ladies, and the general charm of the unusual, give all the proceedings 
an animation for which the social world is the association's debtor. It is a widely 
ramified institution, practically representing all the Provinces, and is the centre of every- 
thing appertaining to military rifle practice in the country. It is also an admirable ex- 
ample of good organization, every detail of its work being thoughtfully brought to the 
highest point of perfection. 




RmEAU CANAL LOCKS. 



Coming back again to the bridge, a hundred yards off on the left, with a sharp 
turn, runs Suffolk Street. Here we enter a section of the city almost exclusively 
French, with French proprietors and French characteristics ; the baker becomes a bo7i- 
laiigcr, the lawyer is avocat, and marchandiscs-scclics obligingly translates itself into 
"dry-goods," for the benefit of the un-F"rench world. On this street is a big three-storey 
cut-stone building recently purchased by Government for the purposes of a Geological 
Museum, the materials for which were all ready to hand in Montreal This promises to 
constitute a very durable adjunct to the means of information possessed by the city. Suf- 
folk Street contains also the French Cathedral, a large and imposing building, of the local 



OTTAWA: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIl'E 209 

gray-blue limestone, whose capacious interior is resplendent with gilding and wood-carv- 
ing, the result of recent extensive improvements. This is the main centre of the French 
and Roman Catholic element. The neighbouring streets are filled with rows ot small, 
clean and tidy cottages, whose good-natured inhabitants use the old tongue of La Belle 
France, and are descendants of those early voyagciirs and chaiiticrs whose traditionary 
pursuits on the ever-beneficent bosom of the Ottawa they still largely follow. 

Beyond the French Cathedral, the road approaches the river, and runs parallel with 
it till the Rideau is reached at a point just above the spot where it plunges in two 
o-raceful "curtains" of water to supplement the great stream of the Ottawa, forty feet 
below. Here is the suburban village of New Edinburgh, and here, too, is the entrance 
to " Rideau Hall," the local name for Government House, of which more hereafter. 

Reverting to our stand at the junction of the bridges, and still turning our backs 
to the Post Office, there lies, on the immediate left, the entrance to the Public Gardens — 
a long stretch of prettily-planned walks, grass and flower-beds, with frequent rustic 
seats — which, though still in incomplete form, is one of the favourite summer evening 
lounges of the citizens. Below, runs the deep gorge through which the waters of the 
canal, by a magnificent series of locks, have been led to join the Ottawa, and beyond 
the locks rises the precipitous wooded slope of Parliament Hill; and the vast pile 
of the " Buildings," whose graceful outline, sharply marked out against the bright 
sky of the on-coming evening and the western sun, is a never-ceasing charm to 
the eyes of the strollers on the garden cliffs. 

Crossing the Sappers' Bridge and passing the Post Office on our right, we come 
upon Elgin Street — whose name, as befits the capital, is a memorial of an ex-Governor — 
and the new City Hall, a large building of blue limestone, containing the various city 
offices and the machinery for carrying out the civic system. 

Following Elgin Street a few hundred paces, a fine piece of open ground is met with 
— Cartier Square — named in honour of the illustrious Canadian statesman under whose 
leadership the Conservative Government for many years held steady sway. Here is the 
great public meeting-place. Reviews of troops, popular gatherings, the rejoicings of 
festival days, foot-ball and lacrosse matches, find ample accommodation. At the far 
end stands an enormous red-brick building— the drill shed— under whose noble span a 
regiment may perform its evolutions in comfort, while commodious sections are fitted 
up as repositories for the several arms of the militia and volunteer force centred in 
Ottawa. On one side of the square stands a very extensive pile of buildings in stone, 
of graceful design — the Normal School — one of the apices of the Government educa- 
tional system of the Province of Ontario; and close by is the Collegiate Institute. In 
this neighbourhood is found the rising "West End" of the community. Villa residences 
of fine proportions and design, surrounded by well-kept gardens, have sprung up in all 
directions. Streets which but five or six years ago were bare fields, are now lined 



2IO 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 




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OTTAWA: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 211 

with handsome buildings of brick and stone, and the hitherto scattered wealthy home-life 
of the city seems to be adopting at last the principle of segregation, which is the feature 
of the greater hives in all countries. 

Retracing our steps along Elgin, back to Sparks Street, we follow the course of 
the street railway towards the Chaudiere Falls, till Upper Town is left, with its busy 
shop-life, and passing the water-works at Pooley's Bridge, enter upon another phase of 
the city — the all-important element of lumber. The air becomes laden with a pleasant, 
healthy smell of pine -wood, and the stores we pass are filled with materials of a very 
matter-of-fact character — stout woollen jerseys and shantyman's boots, notable rather for 
great capacity for honest work than for any extreme elegance of build ; huge saws, 
circular monsters of brobdingagian proportions, with teeth of the most appalling dimen- 
sions, and perpendicular giants of unequalled good temper, whose ungentle mission it will 
be to eat their placid and indifferent way through many a stout-hearted monarch of the 
woods ; axes of the brightest ; chains, " cant dogs," peculiarly-shaped instruments for 
canting over logs into place, and the spike-pole, the lumberman's " best companion." 
These, and barrels of rough-looking but most palatable pork, his staple food, form the 
main contents of the stores of this quarter. Life's luxuries have vanished, its realities 
have full possession. 

As we near the saw-mills the harsh, strident buzz of countless saws is heard. This, 
day and night, in the " running season," is the cry of the ruthlessly-sundered logs, or 
the querulous gamut, up and down, which runs never-endingly, the voice of the labouring 
but ever-victorious saw. Upon every point of rock near the Chaudiere Falls, and upon 
acres of massive, wooden, stone-filled embankments connecting them, to which the upper 
waters could be led, there have been reared the huge mill structures of the lumber 
kings. Flour, cement and wool have also claimed a share of the illimitable water-power. 
Here, overhanging a precipitous fall — there built out on mighty piles — everywhere mills. 
In all directions the waters have been boldly seized, cunningly coaxed, audaciously 
dammed up ; sluices, bulkheads, slides, everywhere, everything is chaotically watery. Yet 
all is the very essence of order and of nice adjustment of means to ends, a very triumph 
of triumphant water slavery. The result is, that the greater part of the tremendous 
stream — here a mile broad at least — is compelled to traverse the main fall about forty 
feet high, and to escape through the principal channel, about 240 feet wide, across which 
a light but strong suspension bridge has been cleverly thrown, connecting Ottawa with 
Hull — the Province of Ontario with that of Quebec. 

In the construction of a bridge at this difficult point the persistency of Bruce's spider 
has been emulated. Fifty years ago there was no bridge, and the boiling, tumbling waters 
of the falls a hundred yards above rushed headlong through charming tree-covered islands, 
in all the picturesque freedom of undisturbed nature. In 1827, when the first steps 
were being taken for the building of the Rideau Canal locks, and little Bytown began to 



212 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

look up in the world, the shot of a cannon carried from rock to rock across the whirling- 
stream a small rope ; this rope was the parent of much endeavour, of repeated failure, 
but of ultimate success. Finally, in 1843, the present stout structure was reared, and 
from its tremulous platform, in all the wild, ceaseless din of falling waters, rush of 
yellow, foam-covered waves and veil of misty spray, one looks at ease into the once 
mystic and awful, but now merely picturesque tumble and toss of living water, the 
famous Chaudiere. Half a mile above, the long, graceful lines of a new and substantial 
iron railway bridge of eleven huge spans, give farther evidence of the mastery of man 
over this once wild spot. 

On the right, beyond a broad area of brownish, gray-coloured rock, bare in the dry 
summer time, but covered v/ith down-rushing water in the river-swollen days of spring, 
are mills and still more mills, and an immense factory for the production of matches and 
pails — one of the ".'■ights"of the locality. On the left, perched high on a labyrinth of 
monster piles, by which the giant force of the river has been dammed up and curbed, runs 
a long line of big saw-mills, and entering these, the unearthly din, made up of whirr, buzz 
and shriek, becomes absolutely deafening. Here is the home of the saw, and anything 
more curiously fascinating than the aspect of the place, with its crowd of ever-busy 
workers, the rapid up-and-down dance of the tremendous saws, can scarcely be imagined. 
Set, thirty or more, framed in a row — those terrible instruments form what is called a 
"gate" — and towards this uncompromising combination the logs, having first been drawn 
from the water up an inclined plane, deftly handled and coaxed into position, are irre- 
sistibly impelled, one succeeding the other, dav and nicrht. For a moment the orlitteringr 
steel dances before the forest innocent, a veritable " dance of death ;" then, with a 
crash and a hiss, the ugly-looking teeth make the first bite, and, for five or six minutes, 
eat their way steadily through the tough fibre, till that which entered the jaws of the 
machine a mere log, emerges in the form of sawn planks, which a few more rapid and 
simple operations convert into v/ell trimmed and salable lumber, ready for the piling 
ground and the markets of America and Europe. 

The scene at night — for work continues both by night and day — is extremely novel 
and picturesque. Some of the lumbering firms now use the electric light, and the effect 
in that pure, clear glare, is of the most Rembrandt-like character. The contrast between 
the darkness outside, and the weird unearthly figures of the busy crowd of workers ; 
the dark, rough backs of the dripping logs, as they are hauled up from the water, 
catching the reflection, and the sharp flash of the steel as it dances up and down — all 
contribute to make a picture of the horrible which Vv'ould captivate the pencil of Dore 
and give Dante a new idea for a modern Inferno. 

Amongst the novel experiences which the city offers to its visitors is the descent 
of the "slides," whereby the hardships of the lumberman's life become, for a few exciting 
moments, the attractive sport of venturesome seekers of strange thrills. The timber for 



OTTAJVA: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIJ'E 



■13 




CHAUDIERE FALLS, AND SUSPENSION BRIDGE. 



214 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 




~" CHAUDIl^RE FaLLG. 

which the special provision of slides is made 
is no mere rough log, but has been carefully 
hewn square in the woods, forming great beams, destined 
for solid piles or massive building work. For the 
avoidance of the unmerciful grinding and battering on jagged rocks which passage 
over the falls would entail, lone, smooth-bottomed channels of massive wood and 
stone-work have been built, leading from the high level above to the waters below, 
the inclination being sufficient to bring the timber safely clown, carefully made up into 
lots called "cribs," containing some twenty "sticks" of various lengths, but of an uniform 
width of twenty-four feet, to fit the slide. The descent is made at a pace which, with 
the ever-present possibility of a break-up, gives a very respectable sense of e.xcitement 
to a novice. There is but little attempt at fastening, the buoyancy of the timber and 
the weight of three or four of the heaviest beams obtainable being sufficient, as a rule, 
to hold the mass together. 

Just at the head the adventurous voyageurs hurriedly embark, the crib being courte- 
ously held back for a moment for their convenience. Untler direction, they perch them- 
selves upon the highest timber in the rear, out of the way as far as possible of uprushing 
waters, and the huge mass is cleverly steered by the immense oars which are used for 



OTTAWA: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 



215 



the purpose, towards the entrance of the chute. Ahead for a quarter of a mile appears 
a narrow channel, down which a shallow stream of water is constantly rushing, with here 
and there a drop of some five or eight feet ; the ladies gather up their garments, as the 
crib, now beginning to feel the current, takes matters into its own hands; with rapidly- 
quickening speed, the unwieldy craft passes under a bridge, and with a groan 'and a 
mighty cracking and splashing, plunges nose foremost, and tail high in the air, over the 
first drop. Now she is in the slide proper, and the pace is exhilarating ; on, over the 
smooth timbers she glides swiftly ; at a bridge ahead passers-by stop, and wavings of friendly 
handkerchiefs are interchanged. Now comes a bigger drop than the last, and the water, 
as we go over, surges up through our timbers, and a shower of spray falls about us. 




CRIB or TIMBER RUNiNING THE SLIDE. 



A delicate "Oh!" from the ladies compliments this effort. Never mind; a little wetting 
was all in this clay's march. Another interval of smooth rush, and again a drop, and 
yet another. Ahead, there is a gleam of tossed and tumbled water, which shows the 
end of the descent ; down still we rush, and with one last wild dip, which sends the 
water spurting up about our feet, we have reached the bottom, cleverly caught on a 
floating platform of wood, called the "apron," which prevents our plunging into 



2i6 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

"full fathoms five." We have "run the slides." Now, out oars, and soon, striking 
into the powerful current which has swept over the falls behind us, we are lying 
moored by the side of some huge raft containing, perhaps, a hundred of such cribs 
as ours, and worth over $100,000, where the process of "re-making up" is going 
on, preparatory to the long, slow tow down the broad waters of the Ottawa to Ste. 
Anne, where the whole work of separation has to be gone over again. Again, too, at 
Lachine, the whole raft is dismembered, and the dangers of those terrible rapids must 
be run with no assistance from slides, before the calm bosom of the St. Lawrence 
can bear our timbers to the tall ships of frowning Quebec and the chances of Atlantic 
storms. 

For us now, not unwilling to accept the hospitality freely extended to all visitors, 
there is the pleasant red fire of the raft to stand by, and the tin pannikins (carefully 
cleansed in our honour) filled from a huge and ever-simmering cauldron of blackest tea 
brew ; there is bread, new and white enough, and vigour-giving pork and nourishing 
beans, all of which Jules, chcf-dc-cuisinc of the craft, offers us with hospitable thought 
and a pleasant smile, showing his white teeth the while. Jules' dubiously agreeable 
mission is to fill the ever-empty forty or fifty hearty and healthy giants who com- 
pose the crew, and as they begin work and breakfasting at daybreak, the generous 
pots must always be ready to supply food till far on in the night. Such pon- 
derous and much-worked machinery requires big furnaces, and the fuel must be at 
hand at all hours. We drink our tea and praise the bread — bringing thereby a glow 
of satisfaction to the brown cheek of our kind cook — and, if allowed, present a small 
do7tccur ; then, with a hand-shake and a bon voyage, we step ashore and leave our craft 
to its fate. 

This descent of the slides is a feature so peculiar to the city that all her illustrious 
visitors are introduced to its charms as a matter of course. The Prince of Wales, Prince 
Arthur, the Grand Duke Alexis, Lord and Lady Dufferin, and Lord Lome with the 
Princess Louise, have all undergone the ordeal with much success and amusement, and 
have thereby entered the ranks of the initiated into the craft of the raftsmen. Farther 
than this slight playful flirtation with a difficult and dangerous life, they would not 
probably care to venture. 

A simple, kindly-hearted, easily-amused race of men are these same stalwart sons of 
the forest, the rapid, and the stream. Given plenty of work and plent}- of food, and 
having unlimited fresh air and consciences the most unburdened, the labours of the day 
find sufficient relief in nightly gatherings round the huge fires of the raft or shanty. 
Some will certainly be found who can tell a good story, dance a cunning if noisy jig, 
or sing one of the many quaint, childish, but often touching airs which, floating down 
intact from the primitive days of the early French rule, still delight the voyaociirs of 
to-day. Perhaps it is the story of the trois beaux canards, who, swimming in the pond. 



OTTAWA: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTU'E 2if 

are shot at by the Jiis dii roi, so mediant with its likely but inconsonant chorus of the 
"rolling ball"; how the white duck fell, and 

" Par ces ycitx liii sorf >it dcs diamants 
En roiilant ma boiiU\ 
Et par cc bcc, for ct largent, 
Roiik\ roiilant, ma bonle roidant ; 
En roidant ma boiilc roidant. 
En roidant ma boidc," 

is a tale known wherever the shantyman has set foot. Or perhaps the praises of their 
snug halting place, " Bytown," are sung. Thus — 

!. - \ 

"A Bytozcin ccst unc jolic place 
Oil d s'ramass ben d'la crasse ; 
Ok ya des jolics Jdles 
Et aitssi des jolis gareons. 
Dans les cliantiers nous hiverncrons." 

Popular amongst their songs is that of the famous Marlborough, hero of la belle 
nation, by virtue of his five years' service with Turenne ; and the air " Malbroiigh s 
en va-t-en giier-re," queerly surviving with us as wedded to the words, " We won't go 
home till morning," has startled the drinking deer of many a river bend on many a 
misty morning. But chief of all stands the tender ''A la claire pontaine T with its 
sad lover of the weeping heart and lost mistress, which, it is said, all the Canadian 
world, from the child of seven to the white-haired man, knows and sings. These 
are the sones which can still be heard from the brow of Parliament Hill, on the 
warm summer evenings, floating up from the monster rafts which, ever-gathering, lie 
moored at its wood-fringed base ; links are these songs, binding the river of the Past 
to the river of To-day. 

Beyond Major's Hill, or rather at its extreme end, is Nepean Point, a rival to the 
big rocky promontory to the westward, upon which the Parliament Buildings stand. 
Here is the saluting battery, from which, on certain high "white stone " days, the curl 
of smoke and boom of big guns tells of a fresh birthday for the Queen, or for the 
young Dominion, or of the state visits of England's representatives to the Senate, or of 
the opening or closing of Parliament. From this, of all the many points from which 
the " Buildings" can be viewed, they present, perhaps, the most picturesque aspect. Suffi- 
ciently near to be taken in as a whole, and yet far enough off to be merged in the 
grace-giving veil of the atmosphere, their effect in the warm glow of the sun as it sets 
in the west is simply delightful to the painter's eye. Bit by bit their dainty towers and 
pinnacles and buttresses fade out in the subdued tones of evening, changing from the 



2l8 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 




" symphony in rea ' to a 
" harmony in gray," till moon- 
hght makes them all glorious 
as a " nocturne in silver and 
black." 

But the centre — the heart 
— of Ottawa lies, of course, 
in its Parliament and De- 
partmental Buildings. Com- 
menced in 1859, the first 
stone was laid by the Prince 
of Wales in i860, and 
they were occupied in 
1865, though much re- 
mamed to be done after 
that date ; the library 
and an extension of 
one of the blocks, the 
grounds, and 
the surround- 
ing walls and 
railings, hav- 
ing been subse- 
quently added. 
In their present 
form the}' cost 
fully five mill- 
ion dollars, and 
cover an area 
of about four 
acres. They 

form three 
sides of a huo-e 
square, Avhich 
is laid down 
in grass, beau- 
tifulh' kept, 
w hose fresh, 
green surface. 



OTTAWA: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 



219 




FROM MAIN ENTRANCE UNDER CENTRAL TOWER. 



crossed with broad paths, stands above the level of Wellington Street, from which it is 
separated by a low stone wall with handsome railing and gates. Rising, above this 
square, on a stone terrace with sloping carriage approaches on either side, the great 
central block, with a massive tower 220 feet high in the centre, faces the square. This 
building, three storeys in height, has a frontage of forty-seven feet and, like the sister 
buildings on either side, is built in a style of architecture based on the Gothic 
of the twelfth century, combining the elements of grace and simplicity which the 
climate of the country seems to require. A cream-coloured sandstone from the 
neighbouring district, to which age is fast adding fresh beauty of colour, with 
arches over the doors and windows of a warm, red sandstone from Potsdam and 
dressings of Ohio freestone, has been happily employed — the effect of colour, apart 
from form, being most grateful to the eye. This building contains the two Cham- 
bers — for the Commons and the Senate — and all the accommodation necessary for 
the officers of both Houses. The Chamber of the Commons is an oblong hall, fitted 



22u 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 



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OTTAJJ'A: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 



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with separate seats and desks for the members, the Speaker's chair being placed in 
the middle of one side, leaving a somewhat narrow passage-way from which on either 
hand the desks of the members rise in tiers. The ceiling is supported by graceful clus- 

















MAIN BUILDINGS, HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT. 



ters of marble pillars — four in each — and a broad gallery runs round the Chamber which, 
on important nights, is crowded with politicians, ladies, members of deputations and 
others interested, from all parts of the Dominion. The debates would be more appre- 
ciated by the public if the speakers could be better heard, though perhaps such a 
statement implies a compliment that should be limited to a select few of the members ; 
but, as with so many other buildings intended for public speaking, the Chamber was 
constructed without reference to any principles of acoustics. Few of the speeches de- 
livered in the House can be called inspiring. In fact, when not personal, they are pro- 
saic. This can hardly be helped, for a Canadian Parliament, like Congress in the 
United States, deals, as a rule, with matters from which only genius could draw inspi- 
ration. The French-Canadian members, in consequence, probably, of the classical training 
that is the basis of their education, are far superior to their English-speaking confreres 



222 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

in accuracy of expression and grace of style. Even when they speak in EngUsh these 
quaHties are noticeable. The Senate Chamber, which, with its offices, occupies the other 
half of the huge building, is of precisely the same architectural character, the colouring 
of carpets and upholstery being, however, of crimson, and the seats being differently 
arranged ; the throne, occupied by the representative of Her Majesty, is at the far end, 
on- a dais of crimson cloth ; and in front of it is the Speaker's chair. Here the cere- 
monies connected with the opening and closing of Parliament take place — the former 
being an event of much importance — indeed, one of the leading incidents of the life of 
the capital. It is a pretty sight, with the gay uniforms of the military, the rich dress 
of the ministers, the scarlet gowns of the Supreme Court judges, and the varied 
toilets of the ladies. It is usually followed in the evening by the holding of a " draw- 
ing-room," at which the strict rules of etiquette which govern European assemblages 
of the kind are dispensed with, and any one who desires can, by complying with 
the ordinary requirements of every-day domestic life as to evening dress, be present, 
and make acquaintance with the representative of the Crown in most simple and re- 
publican fashion. 

Behind the two Chambers is situated the Parliamentary Library, a building of ex- 
ceptional architectural grace externally. Flying buttresses of great strength and beauty 
give a distinctive character to the structure, while its lofty dome is a landmark far and 
near. Inside it is fitted with all possible regard to convenience, the v/orkmanship being 
of elaborately-carvecl wood, and comprising cunningly-devised recesses for reading purposes, 
with rooms for the librarian and his staff. In the centre is a noble marble statue of 
the Queen, executed by Marshall Wood. Marble busts of the Prince and Princess of 
Wales are prominent treasures of the room. In its chief librarian, Dr. Alpheus Todd, 
it possesses a head whose standing as a writer upon constitutional law is recognized in 
all parts of the world. The remaining buildings, on the east and west sides of the 
square, are occupied by the several departments of the Government, and are well 
adapted to meet the present requirements. The east block, which contains the office of 
the Governor-General and the Chambers of the Privy Council, possesses at its entrance 
a tower of graceful design, which very favourably impresses the spectator from Elgin 
Street, to whose eye it gives the first intimation of the vicinity of the buildings. 

Running entirely round the three blocks of the Parliament and Departmental 
buildings is a broad drive, and at the sides and in rear of the library, the grounds, 
like those in the front, are laid out in handsome and well-planned flower-beds, with 
great stretches of green lawn, overlooking the cliff. Here, from a pretty summer- 
house erected close to the edge of the precipitous slope, a widely commanding- 
view is afforded of the broad stream of the Ottawa to the east and west. Immense 
rafts are being made up in all directions ; steamers and tugs ply up and down, tak- 
ing big barges, laden with lumber, to the markets of the world, or toilfully working 



OTTAWA: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 



223 



their way up the rapid current with the burden of a long "tow" of empty 
turning to the yards to ' 

be reloaded. 

On the other side is 
the city of Hull, and 
farther down the river 
is the mouth of the 
Gatineau, itself a great 
river, whose banks are 



ones re- 




TOWEK OF EASTERN BLOCK, DEPARTMENTAL BUILDINGS. 

Studded here and there with queer clusters of wooden cottages, which the spring freshets 
annually transform into lacustrine dwellings of most grotesque discomfort. Over, far away, 

" Where the sunny end of evening smiles — 
Miles and miles," 



is the range of hills, the outcrop of the old Laurentians, knoAvn as the King's 



2 24 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

Mountain, where are all manner of delightful haunts for the artist — tiny lakes and 
seared and moss-grown cliffs and huge boulders — places where man is yet a stranger and 
the whistle of the locomotive a far-distant horror of the future. The valley of the 
Gatineau is marvellously rich in mineral wealth — phosphates, iron ore of the purest 
plumbago, mica, and almost all known varieties of minerals are found, though discovery 
in this direction is yet in its infancy. The first three are, however, somewhat extensively 
mined, and only await the advent of capital to become a source of great wealth to 
the neighbourhood. This is a country rich, too, in prizes for the botanist and 'ento- 
mologist, while the river boasts of rapids and falls which would delight the eye of the 
painter, so gracefully picturesque are their manifold surgings and leapings. 

Besides the Gatineau and the hilly range in front, the summer-house gives a view 
to the west far up the Ottawa till, nine miles off, the shimmer of light shows a broad 
surface of smooth water. Lac du Chene is one of the many expansions of the noble river, 
beside which, snugly nestled, lies the village of Aylmer, a great centre for summer 
excursions, being only twenty minutes' run from the city by train. Below, at our feet, 
there runs all the way round the steep slope of Parliament Hill, a delightful winding 
path — the " Lover's Walk " — cut out of the hillside. A more charming stroll for man 
or maid, lover or misanthrope, could not be wished for. Shut off from the city life 
and embowered in trees, whose cool shade makes the hottest day bearable, the fortunate 
Ottawaite can here "laze" himself into a state of dreamy contentment. Through breaks 
in the foliage the silver river gleams, busy and beautiful, a hundred feet below ; the 
white stems of the birch gracefully relieve the sombre gleam of hemlock and the fresher 
tints of the maple, all for him. Birds talk to him, sing to him. The oriole, with its 
uniform of black and orange, pauses a moment to wish him well, and a bright gleam 
of greenish-blue shows him the kingfisher, far too busily engaged for talk. Perhaps 
the momentary hovering of a tiny ball of emerald and sapphire and opal, and a sound 
as of an overgrown bumble-bee, shows the presence of a humming-bird; while from 
some near bough the " Canada bird " repeats its tenderly sympathetic note^" Poor 
Canada, Canada, Canada ! " with most evident irrelevancy and possible chaff. From the 
mills of the Chaudiere come the faint buzz of the saw, and the noise of the " Big- 
Kettle," which is well seen from the " Walk." All this in the golden haze of a sum- 
mer's afternoon! Who shall say that Ottawa is not beautiful? 

But when the summer has worn away, and the frost in the chilly autumn nights 
has " bitten the heel of the going year," and the sensitive leaves of the maples, stricken 
to death by the first breath of winter, end their brief lives in an exquisite fever 
flush, making wood and hillside a very painter's feast of rich colour, Ottawa begins 
to prepare for the second phase of her existence, her merry winter season. Then comes 
the first snow fall, and soon the cheery ting-tang of sleigh-bells makes gay music for a 
gay white world, and the rumble and dust of her summer streets have gone for a five 



OTTAJVA: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 



225 




D 
Z 

o 

o 
z 

< 

m 

S 
O 
ai 

bf 

D 
O 

K 

f- 
Z 

w 
s 
z 

> 
o 
o 



2 26 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

months' spell. Steamers and tugs and barges are laid up in her once-busy stream, and 
the sluggish waters thicken with the increasing cold till, bit by bit, the tiny ice crystals 
knit themselves into a solid coat two feet in thickness, and the Ottawa is bridged from 
shore to shore. 

That the winter in Ottawa is emphatically winter, and no half-hearted compro- 
mise, there is not a shadow of doubt, and therein lies its charm. No vacillating slush 
and half-melted snow in the streets, no rain and fog in the air — all Is hard and white 
and clear underfoot, while overhead there is the purest of blue skies, which night trans- 
forms into the most glorious of diamond-studded canopies. 

Here now flock from the shores of the Atlantic, a thousand miles away; from 
Manitoba, the hopeful centre of the Dominion ; from beyond the towering barriers of 
the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast, three thousand miles distant ; and from many 
a city, town, village and homestead between — the legislators of the land. The ordinarily 
quiet streets are busy with life, the hotels are all crowded, and the lobbies of the Par- 
liament Buildings are haunted by those peculiar gentry who gather together round 
dispensers of patronage. Dances, dinners, balls and theatricals follow in quick succes- 
sion. Visitors on business and visitors on pleasure come and go, and the work and 
play of a whole year is compressed into three stirring months ; the noble piles of the 
public buildings are brilliant with light, while far into the night the many-coloured win- 
dows of the " Chambers " throw gay reflections on the snow outside. 

The chief centre, as is fitting, of all winter hospitality, is Government House ; and 
in the occupants of the " Hall " Canada has long had representatives of her dignity, 
who have worthily maintained her character as a generous and hospitable country, and 
the care which grudges no pains or cost to give pleasure has its own reward in the 
kindly feeling which invariably follows acquaintance with the simple-mannered, self-for- 
getting lady and gentleman who stand at the head of Canadian society. 

Government House is about two miles from the city. Past the Rideau Falls, the 
road leads on through the village of New Edinburgh to the lodge gates. Down this 
road, in the winter of 1880, the horses attached to the sleigh which was conveying 
H. R. H. the Princess Louise, to hold a drawing-room in the Senate Chamber, bolted, over- 
turning- the sleigh, dragging^ it a considerable distance aloncr the frozen ground. This 
accident resulted, unhappily, in severe injury to the illustrious lady. Once through the 
gates, a drive of a few hundred yards through a pretty bit of native woodland leads 
to the house. Half way up this drive the Princess has caused an opening to be cut 
in the woods, known as the " Princess' Vista," through which a lovely view is afforded 
of the broad stream of the Ottawa and the shore and distant hills beyond- 

Utterly devoid of any attempt at architectural style — a piecemeal agglomeration of 
incongruous brick, plaster, and stone, " Rideau Hall " or Government House is at once 
one of the most unpretentious and disappointing yet comfortable of residences. Set in 



OTTAWA: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 



227 




228 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 




' 'lit "'■ '■TSLn \lJ^ 'l 



THE PRINCESS' VISTA. 



a delightfully varied area of grass, garden, and forest, comprising near])' ninety acres of 
land, the building presents an aspect the most commonplace to the visitor, Avho sees 
only the bare wooden porch of the doorway, flanked on the right by the tennis court 
(which by a charming transformation does duty as a supper-room), and on the left by 
the ball-room. But the pleasantness of the place lies in the yet unseen. Away back from 
that unprepossessing central doorway stretches a long, gray-stone, two-storied building, 
whose rooms look out upon flower-gardens and conservatories, and which has all those 
delightful surprises in the way of cosy, oddly-shaped apartments, such as buildings 
which have grown, bit by bit, from small beginnings so often possess. 

Besides the never-ending round of balls, dinners and general entertaining, for which 
Government House is famous, there is the range of out-of-door fun ; and here come in 



OTTAIVA: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 229 

skating, curling, and above all, the toboggan. Out of Canada or Russia, the delights 
of the toboggan slide are but matters of imagination. Nowhere else can the swift down- 
ward rush into the strong, healthy embrace of the frosty air, over the glossy, white surface 
of the hardened snow be enjoyed ; and the very best of Canadian slides — barring the 
somewhat dangerful Montmorency, and perhaps the glacis of Fort Henry at Kingston — 
is at Government House. Here, in the grounds, reared on a high mound, there rises 
far above the tree-tops all through the summer a huge bare structure of stout timbers, 
from the summit of which descends, at a steep angle, a boarded trough, ending with 
the foot of the hill, which winter sees snow-covered and the centre of laughter and 
most hearty, healthful fun. This, and two fine, smooth areas of well-kept ice, and a long, 
covered rink for the benefit of curlers, are among the attractions to hundreds of guests 
of the House through the winter season. It is a merry, jolly scene, when the rinks are 
crowded with skaters performing all manner of intricate figures and dances, while the 
sharp hiss and clink of the steel forms a cheery accompaniment to the roar and rush 
of the toboggan as it sweeps down with its laughing load and vanishes far away under 
the distant trees. 

To the Canadian the toboeo-an is as familiar as a household word : but for the benefit 
of the uninitiated, it should be explained that it is a thin strip of wood about two feet 
wide and six or eight feet long, curled up in front to throw off the snow, the "form" being 
maintained by thongs of deer's sinew. Upon this a well-padded cushion or buffalo-skin 
is fastened, and the result is a toboggan of luxury. To be comfortable, one should 
be prepared — the object being to keep out the fine snow from a too intimate relationship 
with the body. A pair of thick woollen stockings and moose-skin moccasins over the 
feet, a blanket-coat of white or blue, and a tuque (or habitanfs long cap) on the head, 
or one of fur well jammed down over the ears, with long, fur gauntlets, makes a 
capital costume. The ladies are charming in gay blanket coats of red or white or blue, 
or warm fur mantles, with snug white "clouds" wound coquettishly over their fur caps. 
Most bewitching is this Canadian tobogganning dress, bringing such piquant effect to 
a pretty face touched with the ripe, rich glow of health, as makes mere ball-room 
beauty commonplace. The toboggan is a most accommodating vehicle. Charming 
as a carrier of two, it is delightful with three, and four can go down on it with comfort. 
Having climbed to the top of the slide by a series of steps, the party prepares to de- 
scend. The garments of the gentle freight are carefully tucked in and, seated one 
behind the other, the steerer last, ready either with hand or with foot outstretched 
behind to guide the erratic craft. fretting go their hold, with the swoop of an eagle 
and a harsh, grating, crash and crackle, down they rush at the rate of twenty miles an 
hour, cutting the sharp, keen air which, in return, almost takes their breath away; 
bounding headlong over any irregularities in the road, past the foot of the hill in a 
twinkling, where a crowd of spectators stands ready to applaud success or laugh at 



230 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 



mishap, and flashing along 
the smooth white track 
beyond for a quarter of a 
mile or more till the speed 
slackens, and they spring 
up hurriedly, to leave the 
path clear for the next 
jolly party which is close 
on their heels. Sometimes 




and, indeed, frequent- 
ly enough, there is a 
spill ; the toboggan is 
ill-balanced, some one 
moves to right or 
left, or the preceding 
toboggan has scored 
too deep a curve in 
the snow, and in a 
moment the whole 
party is sent flying at 
all manner of queer 
tangents, but no harm 
is done. There is a 
good deal of laugh- 
ing, much Ijrushing 
off of the snow-dust, 



OTTAWA: HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE 



231 



inwF'nr"*'**'** 




Am^' 



and — "better luck next time.'" It is half the 
fun being occasionally upset, and, indeed, it 
takes some skill and much good fortune to 
ensure a successful run. Lord Lome, besides 
building a second and loftier slide, has introduced a new charm — tobogganning by- 
torchlight — and a more quaintly fairy picture could not be desired than this affords. 
Hundreds of Chinese lanterns clot the trees or hansj in festoons, while the lone course 
is outlined with llaming torches, and a monster bonfire throws a ruddy glow over 
everything. Hot mulled wine and coffee and the music of a military band make the 
charm complete, and supper puts the perfecting touch to Canada's great winter pastime. 
Into this merry sport, as into all others which the bright Canadian winter offers, 
the Princess enters with the hearty zest of her simple, unaffected, womanly nature, 
laughingly beguiling her more timid guests into essaying the descent with her, and suc- 
cessfully " taking them down." Both the present Governor-General and his predecessor, 
throwing the same energy into their play as into their work, have been the life and soul 
of rink and slide ; and the natural, home-like life of the " Hall," which so many hun- 
dreds have shared, is at its brightest in these constantly-repeated gatherings. 

Such, then, is Ottawa in its several aspects of social, political, and business life — the 



" Fair city witli its crown of towers,' 



as Lord Dufferin happily styled her. Picturesque she cannot fail to be, for nature has 
made her so ; a power she must be for good or bad, throughout the land, for her 



232 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 



fortunes have so willed it. Holding in her midst the centred force of a whole people, 
and being, by virtue of her strange wild past and noble present, the link that binds the 
old to the new — the experience-taught, sober Old World across the sea to the fresh 
energy and restless vitality of this great young continent — may she prove worthy of her 
honours ! May the bells of the capital of the Dominion ever — 

"Ring out a slowly-dying cause, 

And ancient forms of party strife ; 
Ring in the nobler modes of life 
With sweeter manners, purer laws." 




VICE-REGAL CHAIR, SENATE CHAMBER. 



THE UPPER OTTAWA 



^■n 



THE UPPER OTTAWA 




■npHE attractions of the city to which the Ottawa River has given a name, its 
political, social, and commercial importance, lead many to limit their interest to 
that part of the river which lies below the Chaudiere. Yet the Upper Ottawa 
presents an unbroken panorama of scenery scarce to be rivalled in Canada, if on 
the American continent ; scenery that changes from the pastoral calm of unruffled 
river and lake, fit mirror and bath for the yet unscared Dryad of the woods, which 
alternate with wheat-field, farm, and village — to the torrent, whirling trees like play- 
things ; the cascade leaping in silver shaft from the precipice ; the archipelago of five 
hundred islets; the still, dark depth of current under Oiseau Rock; the broad, navigable 
stream between mountains clad with primeval forest, — to where the locomotive of the 
new-built railway outscreams the eagle amid the lonely hills of Mattawa. The scenery 
of the Upper Ottawa is, perhaps, the least known in Canada. It is still in very many 
places as wild, as unmarked by the presence of man, as when Champlain discovered it. 
Yet it is full of promise for the wealth and civilization of the future ; unlimited wood- 
supply and water-power ; land that bears the finest of cereals ; marble that already 
decks the Chambers of our National Parliament ; with hills and cliffs in whose womb 
lie, awaiting^ birth, the most useful of the economic metals. Such are but a few of the 
natural advantages of this part of our country. 

Nor is the scenery without historic associations of interest. From the earlier times 
it was the great water highway of the Indian race, who knew no better road for their 
hunting expeditions. Its true Indian name was the " Kit-chi-sippe," of which the French 



■234 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

"Grande Riviere" is a mere literal translation; "sippi," or "sippe," meaning water, as in 
" Mississippi," and many other Indian names. 

The name " Ottawa " was, according to the best Indian authorities, the appellation 
of a tribe of Algonquins whom the French voyagcurs met on the river, although their 
real home was on Lake Michigan — the word signifying " the human ear," a tribal 
title. A portion of this tribe occupied the territory near Calumet and Allumette. 

The modern history of the Upper Ottawa begins with the illustrious discoverer 
who first led the way on its waters to the great lakes of the West — Samuel de 
Champlain — of whom mention has elsewhere been made in this work as the Father of 
New France and the Founder of Quebec and Montreal. An embassy from the Algon- 
quins of the Ottawa had asked his aid in their war with the Iroquois, who, inhabit- 
ing what is now New York State, were a kind of pre-historic Annexationists in 
their desire to add to their own country what is now Canada. It was, all through, 
Champlain's policy to make the Algonquins subjects, converts and soldiers, against the 
Iroquois heathen. And when a Frenchman of his party, named Vignan, who had passed 
up the river in the Algonquin canoes, returned, after a year in the Upper Ottawa region, 
with a wonderful story of a great lake at the source of the Ottawa, and of a river beyond 
it that led to the ocean, Champlain was captivated by the tale. All the gold of India 
and the spice islands of the Orien" seemed brought within the reach of France. On 
Monday, the 27th day of May, 1615, he left his fort at Montreal with a party of 
five Frenchmen — including Vignan — and a single Indian guide, in two small canoes. 
Carrying their canoes by land past the rapids, they glided in the tiny egg-shell ships 
that were freighted with the future of Canada's civilization, over the tranquil depth of 
Lac du Chene, till the cataracts of the Chats, foaming over the limestone barrier 
stretched across the lake, confronted them as with a wall of waters. Undaunted by a 
scene still, as then, terrible in its wild sublimity, they pressed on, toiling with their 
canoes over the portage to where Arnprior now stands ; thence over the Lake of the 
Chats to what is now Portage du Fort. Here the Indians said that the rapids — those 
of the Calumet — were impassable. They entered the broken hill country through a 
pine forest where a late tornado had strewn huge trees in every direction. In the 
painful toil of crossing this debris, they lost part of their baggage. Long years after- 
ward a rapier and an astrolabe, or astronomical instrument for observing the stars, were 
found in this region ; the date on the astrolabe, corresponding to that of this expedition, 
showing it to be a veritable relic of Champlain. Past the perilous impediments of this 
portage, they crossed Lake Coulange to the island of the Allumette. There a friendly 
chief named Tessonet received them. While at his camp, Champlain discovered that 
Vignan had deceived him, and had never been farther up the river than the camp of 
Tessonet. Champlain pardoned the impostor, whom his Indian allies wished to kill with 
torture. He then returned to the fort at Ouebec, and in his frail vessel once more 



THE UPPER OTTAWA 235 

crossed the ocean to France. Here he met with some encouragement, and returning 
with suppHes and missionary priests, Champlain set out a second time on the Upper 
Ottawa with a single F"renchman and ten Indians, till he reached the Indian camp at 
Allumette. Thence, twenty miles of navigable river stretched before him, straight as 
the bird files, between the sombre hills. Passing the rapids — the Joachim and the Cari- 
bou, the Rocher Capitaine and the Deux Rivieres — they reached the term of their 
voyage on the Ottawa at its junction with the Mattawa. Thence they made their 
way to Lake Nipissing and the great Western Lakes. A score of years afterwards, 
successful in all the great exploits he had undertaken, this strange compound of adven- 
turer, statesman, soldier, saint and scholar, died at Quebec, on Christmas Day, 1635. 

To Champlain, discoverer of the Upper Ottawa route, traders and mission priests 
succeeded as civilizing agents. A fur-trading company was formed by merchants in 
France, whose voyagcitn and courciirs de bois penetrated far up the river among the 
friendly Algonquins. Important mission stations were formed in the Huron and Simcoe 
regions, the road to which was by the Upper Ottawa. It is impossible to read of the 
marveHous labours and sufferings of those missionaries without feeling the admiration due 
to brave men. One missionary died at a slow fire, his neck circled with hot axes, his 
head in mockery baptised with boiling water, praying for his torturers to the end. 
Father Jogues, having survived torture and mutilation, returned to France, where he 
was greeted as a martyr for the b'aith. All Europe rang with his praise. In the Royal 
Palace the Queen — Anne of Austria — kissed his dismembered hand. But he would not 
be stayed from returning to his work in the wilderness. Another was found dead in 
the woods. He was kneeling ; his hands clasped — frozen while he prayed ! Apostolic 
devotion met with Apostolic success. The blood of the Jesuit martyrs has been the seed 
of the Roman Church on the Upper Ottawa. In every town and village, even to far-oif 
Mattawa, the Roman Catholic church is one of the largest ; the Indians continue firm 
in its fold. Regular visits are paid each winter by mission priests to the shanties ; few 
Christian congregations are more devoted to their clergy or more attentive to religious 
worship, than these rough, French-speaking lumbermen, many of whom are of half-Indian 
descent. 

To the fur-trade of the French merchants succeeded, after the English Conquest, the 
rule of the Hudson's Bay Companv, whose forts and outposts have been receding, as a 
higher form of industry supplants the traffic of the hunters. Now the trade, par- excel- 
lence, of the Upper Ottawa, is that of lumber, for which the river is the main artery 
in Canada. In fact, this industry has assumed a first place in our commerce ; the vast 
forests along the river margin are peopled every season by armies of lumbermen ; and 
the Ottawa floats the wealth thus secured on to the sea-ships that bear it to every 
haven in the world. 

For nine miles above the Chaudiere the Ottawa is so broken by rapids as to be 



236 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 




TIMBER BOOM, FITZROY HARBOUR. 



unnavigable. A steamer plies between Aylmer and Fitzroy Harbour, on the Ottawa 
side of the Chats rapids. The passage along the expansion of the river, called Lac 
du Chene, affords a view of the pleasant village of Aylmer. On either shore the 
country side betokens advanced civilization — gardens and farm-lands stretching far and 
wide. On the Ottawa side a quaint old wooden church marks, in the township of South 
March, the settlement of descendants of military officers of the Anglo-American War of 
181 2-1 5. On the Quebec side is the village of Ouio, at the mouth of the river of the 
same name, where the steamer calls. In the background are the dark outlines of the Lau- 
rentian Mountains, their nearer slopes covered with dense woods. The scenery now is 
as wild as when Champlain first adventured on these waters. Landing at Pontiac, from 
a group of log-houses whose primitive roughness is not ill-matched with the scenery, we 



THE UPPER OTTAWA 



237 



see in the distance the gigantic limestone barrier which here crosses the river, and the far- 
off column of cataract-spray from the largest of the Chats rapids. The steamer touches, 
at F"itzroy Harbour, a point in the scene well worthy of study, and where we get one 
of the best views of the Chats. The little village is out of sicjht — insigfnificant and 
poverty-stricken — but from the hill which hides it we see the walls of precipice, island 
and cataract, which stretch across the entire Ottawa, like the bridle of stone with 
which the genii in Eastern fable were bidden to curb some mighty river ! At the 
left side, on the Fitzroy shore, is the mouth of the River Carp, which winds its tortu- 
ous way from the pleasant pastures of Hazeldean, near Ottawa ; and a semi-circular 
strand, strewn with logs, ends in a point covered with dense, low verdure. 




THE CHATS, I-ROM FONTIAC 






Near us, two fishermen are shovine off a boat ; it is of the kind called a 
bonne, or "good girl." These boats are much used by lumbermen. Flat-bottomed, 
invariably painted red, and shaped something like a "scow." It is well to hire one 
of them and push into the lake so as to get a thorough view of the waterfalls. 
These are generally counted as sixteen ; in reality, we observe many more, and as 
we get nearer, realize the fact that the entire strength and stress of the Ottawa is 
bent on forcing its way over this barrier of limestone precipice. Sometimes it takes 
the opposing rampart by storm, surging over it in a sudden charge, foamless and 
sprayless, an unbroken dome of water ; then, as its first force is spent, and it has 
lost its spring, it begins to plunge, surging and seething round the rocks that inter- 
pose to break its course, and hurling downwards the logs it has carried in its current, 
like missiles against a foe. Or, as we glide beneath the overhanging cliffs, we see 
how, from some narrow opening at the summit, a rocket-like, lance-shaped shaft of 
clear white water leaps alone into the abyss below ! Between the cascades, the rocks 
appear like separate islands, where the thirsty cedars and willows cling with serpent-like 



238 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 




THt. CHATS FALLS. 

roots to the A\ater-ho]lo\ved stone r 

maple and birch briQ^htening the 

sombre pines, and \eteran firs, gaunt 

with )ears, keeping guard. And through 

all, in a thousand unseen channels, Ave feel 

that the ri\er-flood is spreading the secret 

of its fertilizing power. Most remarkable 

of all, however, is the largest of the 

" chutes " — or waterfalls ; it is that whose white spray, rising 

high over the outline of the wood, we saw from Pontiac — a pillar of mist, which but 

for its purer whiteness, might be mistaken for one of the columns of bush-fire smoke 

in the country around. 

On a closer view we discern, on either side, the shelving or sharpened masses of 
bare brown rock, to whose sides and summits the cedars cling- as for dear life, clutching 
with their spreading roots all available vantage-ground. Far above, where the wind 
wafts aside the curtain of dim-blue vapour, we can see the torrent sweep, at first 
without impediment or break. But in the centre, black against the snow-coloured 
cataract, rises a mass of rock — a miniature fortress — secure in the midst of the tur- 
moil. Breaking upon this, like cavalry against an army it cannot shake or shatter. 



THE UPPER OTTAWA 



'■o9 



the pride of the cascade Is humbled. It divides into two torrents, in whose career 
all shape and outline is lost in a fury of foam, in waves that hurry they know not 
whither, turning- to and fro the logs that fleck their course, and fully realizing- the 
grace and bounding ease of the tameless wild beast from which these waterfalls 
were not inaptly named. 

As a means of direct communication between the portions of the river above 
and below the Chats, a slide has been constructed at considerable expense by the 



.i^' 




QUIU, FROM THE CHAIS. 



Canadian Government. Beside this the slide-master's house is built, a good view of 
which may be seen from Fitzroy Harbour. After examining the waterfalls, and 
especially the largest chute, the Niagara of the Chats, It is pleasant, while close 
to its reek and rout, to look towards the Quebec side from the strip of waters to 
the "Everlasting Hills" In the far distance; the charm of the perspective is enhanced 
by jutting point and island, beyond which are the church-towers and house roofs of 
the French village of Oulo. 

The origin of the name " Chats " is doubtful. Some say it is a translation of the 
Indian appellation, it being a habit of the early French voyagciirs to adopt the Indian 
designations ; others, that it was so called from the number of wild-cats found in the 
nelcrhbourinti' woods ; while a resemblance that miofht well have suesrested the name is 
seen in the cataracts with extended claws, in rifted rocks like the fangs of the felhuT, 
in the hissing, spluttering and fury of the descending cascades. But above that region 
of noise and terror, the " Lake of the Wild-Cats " is tame, with talons sheathed and 
tempestuous passions hushed. Through the clear, exhilarating air, the sun is strewing 



240 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

gold upon the stirless water, except where the steamer glides with a track of swaying 
jewels. The sky is imaged in the ultramarine of the lake, or rather, of the river, 
which here expands so broadly that a faint blue mist veils the woods on the Quebec 
shore. This expansion extends nearly to Portage du Fort. Arnprior, on the south 
shore, is a place of some importance, from its lumbering establishments and its quar- 
ries of beautiful marble, of which the shafts of the columns in the Houses of Par- 
liament at Ottawa are formed. Beyond and above us, wind, with slope ever-changing, 
never monotonous, the dark-purple undulations of the Laurentian Hills. 

Near the end of the lake we notice an enormous boom stretching across the 
river. On the Quebec shore is the dwelling of the boom-master, whose duty it is 
to see to all things pertaining to the effective working of that important key to the 
lumberer's treasury. The boom seems closed against us ; but as our steamer, the 
"Jeannette," approaches, the boom-master's assistant, who has been on the look-out for 
us, walks airily along the floating boom, narrow as it is, and opens a kind of gate. 
We pass through, and steam onward under the shadow of a steep hill covered with 
forest, the haunt of bears and lynxes. Here the river parts into several narrow 
channels, which run between small islands of white stone. The current is very rapid ; 
at the high water of spring no steamer can breast it, but now our little craft makes 
way gallantly. As we pass close beneath the miniature cliffs, we remark how their 
rocky sides are scooped and tunnelled, sometimes in the most curious shapes and 
mimicries of human art. As a rule, the markings are longitudinal, and resemble those 
which a comb would make if drawn along the surface of a fresh-plastered wall. The 
farthest of these islets is called Snow Island. To the river-drivers descending the 
stream in the spring, the mass of white rock looks like a huge drift of snow. 

The steamer lands us at the little villacje of Portage du Fort, at the foot of the 
series of rapids down which, from over the falls of the Calumet, the Ottawa thunders. 
The road, up hill and down gully, which replaces the portage path of ancient days, evers. 
now suggests the difficulties which caused this carrying-place to be called " Portage du 
Fort." Before the construction of the railway, this bit of stage-road was an important 
link in the chain of Upper Ottawa communication ; but now it is little used except 
by the river-drivers and the few inhabitants of the villages at either end. We 
pass a pretty little Gothic church perched on the hill which overlooks the Por- 
tage du Fort rapids. It belongs to the Episcopalians, and is built in rigidly-correct 
early English style ; there are some good memorial windows, gifts of the Usburne 
family who owned the mills, which have since been transferred to Braeside, near Arn- 
prior. The river between Portage du Fort and the Calumet is only navigable by the 
lumbermen's boats descending the current in the high waters of spring-time. Even to- 
these, this part of the Ottawa is dangerous, and is the scene of many fatal accidents. 
Where the river winds under the Portacre du Fort church, its course takes a sudderi 



THE UPPER OTTAWA 241 

turn, at the northern angle of which there is a projecting arm of sharp-pointed rock, 
partially submerged by the spring flood-tides. Woe to the birch canoe or even the 
stouter-ribbed bonne carried, bv incautious steering, too near the " Devil's Elbow." Over 
nine miles of uninteresting hilly road we drive to Bryson, a thriving village close to the 
Calumet Falls, where we hire a canoe with an Indian — or rather, half-breed — to propel 
it. He is most painstaking in his endeavour to carry us to every point of interest. 
Strangely insecure as these most capsizeable of craft appear on first acquaintance, one 
soon gets to like them. The motion is gentle, and they glide over the water like a 
duck. The canoe brings us to a point where, by ascending a portage track up the 
hill, we get close to the Grand Chute. This track is much worn. As we reach the 
summit of the hill, the guide bids us pause beside a mound covered with stones and 
fenced by a rude railing. The railing and a rough attempt at a memorial cross have 
nearly all been cut away by the knives of visitors — not in desecrating curiosity, but 
in veneration for the sanctity of him who sleeps beneath ! It is the grave of Cadieux. 

In the days of the early French explorations of the Upper Ottawa, there came to 
this region of the AUumette and Calumet, where Champlain himself had been so kindly 
received by the chiefs of the Ottawa Indians, a French voyagcur named Cadieux. No 
one knew why he had quitted Old France ; but though he could fight and hunt as 
deftly as the oldest conrcu?- de bois, Cadieu.x also knew man)' things that were strange to 
these rough children of the forest. He was highly educated. Especially could he com- 
pose both music and poetry, and could sing so that it was good to hear him ; and he 
wooed and won a lovely Indian maiden of the Algonquin Ottawas. Their wigwam, 
with those of a few of her tribe, stood near this very spot, close to the Great Fall of 
the Calumet. Once upon a time, they were preparing their canoes to go down 
with their store of Avinter furs to A^lontreal. All was peace in their camp when, on a 
sudden, the alarm was given that a large war-party of the dreaded Iroquois were stealing 
through the woods. There was but one hope left. Cadieux, with a single Indian to 
support him, would hold the foe at bay, while his wife and her friends should launch 
their canoe down the rapids. It was quickly done. The canoe was committed to the 
boiling waters of the cataract, the skilful Indians paddled for their lives, and the wife of 
Cadieux, who was a devout Catholic, prayed Ste. Anne to help them. From eddy to 
eddy the canoe was swept, and still, as she bounded on, the Indians saw that a figure 
seemed to move before them to direct their course — a form as of a lady in mist-like, 
white robes. It was Ste. Anne, protecting her votaress! And so they all made their 
way safe to Montreal, thanks to the good Saint. 

But poor Cadieux did not fare quite so well. Instead of invoking a saint, he was 
carefully taking up his position behind one tree after another, every now and then 
shooting an Iroquois. These subtle warriors, not liking to fight what they supposed to 
be a considerable force, withdrew. But the comrade of Cadieux was slain, his home 



242 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

destroyed, and after some days Cadieux himself died of exhaustion in the woods. Beside 
him was found, traced by his dying hand, '' Lc Lament de Cadieux" his death-song, which 
the voyagcurs have set to a pleasing but melancholy air. It is much in the style of similar 
" Laments," once common in Norman-French, and is still a favourite at the shanties 
and on the river. Our guide, who did not look on the above-given legend from the 
point of view of "the higher criticism," and who had a pleasing voice, sang the song 
as we stood beside the grave. The French lumbermen and Indians still come here to 
pray — to do this brings good luck on forest and river — and the trees all around are 
carved with votive crosses, cut by the pen-knives of the devout among the lumbermen. 

We descend through the wood, observing, as we pass, another enormous timber 
slide. Again we take our way through the woods and down to the beach, where we 
hear the roar, before indistinct, of the rapids. A little farther on we reach 'the spray- 
drenched, slippery rocks, and the greatest of the Upper Ottawa waterfalls, the Grand 
Chute of the Calumet, is before us. 

Those who have most fully analyzed the impression made by such cascade scenery 
as the Chats, will feel that it is made up of many distinct impressions of the various 
forms of falling water. In observing this, the largest of the seven chutes of the 
Calumet, one is struck with the unity and breadth, as well as the sublime beauty, of 
this cataract. To those who have eyes to see and hearts to feel, it is true with regard 
to the beauty of form in falling water, as in all other aspects of scenery, that Nature 
never repeats herself. Her resources are inexhaustible. It is only the incurable cockney 
who can say, " Sir, one green field is like all green fields !" 

In the background is a semi-circle of dark cliffs, gloomy with impending pines. It 
is cleft in the centre, where, from a height of sixty feet, through foam and spray, and 
echo of conquered rocks, the main body of the river rushes down. At its base a pro- 
montory of black and jagged granite throws into relief the seething mass of whiteness. 
At some distance to the left of this, and nearer to where we stand, a second torrent of 
volume equally vast, dashes, white as a snow-drift, through veils of mist. To the 
right, where the wall of cliff approaches us, a single thread of silver cascade, as furious 
in its fall, circles and pulsates. In the centre is a vast basin — the meeting of the waters — 
which rush and drive hither and thither, as if they had lost their way and did not 
know what to do with themselves. It is a spectacle not to be paralleled in any other 
waterfall we know of, not excepting Niagara: this vast sea of cataract, this lake of foam, 
with its setting of cliff, brown in the shadows, purple in the light, and parted in the fore- 
ground by the immense masses of ribbed and stratified rock over which the mad pas- 
sages of water triumph with a supreme sweep and a roar that scares the scylitude, as, 
free at last, they madly career along the lesser rapids to the deep below. Wild and 
desolate, indeed, are these black and foam-sheeted rocks amid which we stand ; no living- 
presence near, but the fish-hawk hovering, with hoarse scream, over the torrent. 



THE UPPER OTTAWA 




244 FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 

Above the Calumet Rapids, as the steamer Is no longer running and there is no 
marked feature in the river scenery to repay canoeing, it is best to drive back to Portage 
du Fort and proceed by stage to Haley Station, on the Canada Pacific. The country is 
exceedingly broken and hilly — the same geological formation that we see at the Calumet 
Falls. Over this country Champlain toiled in what he has described as the most trying part 
of his Upper Ottawa expedition. The natural difficulties of the rugged hillside track 
were then enhanced by pine forest, impenetrable on either side of the narrow portage 
path, which w^as in many places blocked up by fallen trees, the debris of a late tornado. 
But like the Prince who made his way through the enchanted forest to the " Belle 
an bois dormantc" Samuel de Champlain pressed on through all obstacles to where the 
Future of Canada called him. His journals record the loss of some portion of his 
baggage at this part of his route. As we have mentioned, an astrolabe has been found 
In the neighbourhood, no doubt a relic of this memorable adventure. A journey 
of thirty miles brings us to Pembroke, the county seat of Renfrew. This thriving 
town Is not yet half a century old. Its founder, "Father" White, came to the place 
in November, 1825. Its prosperity was secured by the growing lumber trade. It 
is now a progressive but by no means picturesque semi-circular array of buildings In 
the rear of the railway bridge, and at the confluence of the river Muskrat with the 
Ottawa. On all sides are piles of lumber, and Pembroke is scented afar off by the odour 
of fir, pine and cedar, as surely as Ceylon by "spicy breezes." There are no buildings 
worthy of remark except the Court House and the Catholic church — a large but 
unornamented structure of cold-gray stone, which stands on the highest ground in the 
centre of the town. Presently we start in a small steamer, similar to that in which we 
travelled on the Lake of the Chats, noticing the vast quantities of timber afloat In a 
boom at the mouth of the Muskrat, and a large wooded Island near the town, used only 
as a pleasure resort. With woods and villages Indistinct in the distance, Allumette Island 
lies on the opposite side of this expansion of the Ottawa, which takes the name of the 
Upper Allumette Lake. We pass on the Ontario side the mouth of Petawawa River, 
one of the largest lumbering tributaries of the Ottawa, by which some of the best timber 
Is floated down. Its length Is one hundred and forty miles, and it drains an area of two 
thousand two hundred square miles. The Upper Allumette presents much the same 
features which have been described In the Lake of the Chats, an equally beautiful e.xpanse 
of water, fringed with dense woods of oak, poplar, birch and maple, while the tall pines 
everywhere lift their rugged tops above the sea of verdure. The land on either side is 
said to be excellent and fairly settled, producing quantities of grain and cattle for the 
use of the lumber shanties. Formerly pork was the staple food of the shantymen, but 
fresh beef is now found to be healthier for the men, and the cattle are easily driven over 
the portage, where to carry barrels of pork was endless labour. The Allumette Lake ter- 
minates at the Narrows — so called not because the river Is narrow, but because there is but 



THE UPPER OTTAWA 245 

a small channel navigable. In this, as we pass, soundings are taken with a pole, the 
steamer stopping while it is being done. Here we enter an archipelago of seeminoly 
numberless islands covered with beech, birch, poplar and cedar; and, in the fall season, the 
pleasantest time of year to make this expedition, lit with lustre of the regalia which the 
woods assume, to wave farewell to departing summer. It is pleasant to sit on the steamer's 
deck and watch her glide, with her boat duly in tow astern through these bright waters, 
"from island unto island," each rising around us in turn, the fresh ereen of its cedars 
nestling on the water and contrasting with the scarlet of the soft maple, the yellow of the 
birch, the young oak's garnet and the larch's gold. Though but little known in compari- 
son with the Thousand Islands, the Narrows of the Upper Ottawa are, in the opinion of 
most who have visited both, far the more beautiful. And the Narrows has the advantage 
of being as yet unprofaned by the noise and iinpcdimcnla of vulgar tourists 

At the end of the Narrows is Fort William, till lately a Hudson's Bay Company 
post ; the steamer stopping here, we land. The building formerly occupied by the 
Company is now a store, supplying a large extent of farm country. As we stood watch- 
ing the entrance of a very primitive road through the bush, and mentally wondering 
what manner of horses or vehicles could adventure therein, the question was solved 
by the appearance of a farmer's wagon on its way to the Fort William store, which is 
also Post Office and commercial centre to the region. The horses were as fine, large- 
built and strong as one could wish to see ; the driver quite at his ease in managing 
them, and with ample leisure to pay attention to the rosy-cheeked, laughing-eyed lasses 
who sat with him. One of these lasses will probably, at no long time hence, keep house 
through the winter months, while that young man and that team are away in the shan- 
ties, earning good pay for the dear ones at home. 

From this point, that part of the Ottawa called Deep River begins, where, pressing 
against the base of the mountains on its northern side, the stream stretches on for twenty 
miles — deep, dark and navigable. The bluff of this mountain range which we first 
encounter is called the Oiseau Rock. The front is precipitous ; a plumb-line could 
be almost swung from the summit to the base, where, as the steamer passes quite close, 
we see the dark openings of caves, said to have been used by the Indians as places 
of sepulture, which have never been explored. The name " Oiseau Rock " is taken from 
a legend, common to the folk-lore of every nation, of an eagle having carried off a 
papoose from an encampment to its eyrie on the summit, whence it was rescued by 
the mother. These cliffs should be seen by moonlight, which may easily be done by 
any one inclined to take boat on a fishing excursion from Des Joachims. Then it is 
that, gliding beneath the cliff which rises sheer above us with its gray lights and sable 
shadows, we learn to know the giant precipice, where nothing that has not wings has 
climbed. 

The mountains, after leaving Oiseau Rock, are of a more convex shape, and are 



246 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 




SCENES ON THE UPPER OTTAWA. 



THE UPPER OTTAWA 



!47 



covered with woods. The pines and firs become more frequent. Dark patches of lunber- 
coloured verdure formed by them alternate on the hillsides with the gayer array with 
which the forest-nymphs have vested the trees as a farewell tribute to summer. At 
no time in the year can this scenery look so lovely, and nowhere can the matchless 
beauty of Canadian autumn forests be seen so perfectly as where these hills are mirrored 
in the river. 

At the head of the Deep River, and under the shadow of these wood-covered 
mountains, is a wharf with a cluster of outbuildings, and on the slope of a neat 




OISEAU ROCK. 



green-swarded ascent, a house, something like a Swiss chalet, with a double veranda 
runnino- all around it. This is our destination — the Hotel Des Joachims. Here it 
is well to rest awhile, to be lulled to sleep by the roar of the rapids close by ; 



>48 



FRENCH CANADIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER 




DES JOACHIMS LANDING. 



to be waked by the sunshine lighting up the green, gold and scarlet of the Joachim 
forest-hills. 

As the Joachim rapids are impassable, we drive by stage over the portage to the 
river-bank above the rapids, where a canoe may be hired to Mackay, a station on the 
Pacific Railway. Though inferior in beauty to the Deep River scenery, the stream 
here is over 300 feet wide. The aspect of river and banks is of the same character, 
and the swift, silent canoe voyage has its charms. At Mackay's the bank has a lower 
level, and is covered with boulders great and small, of water-rounded gneiss. The name 
Mackay is taken from a farm-house near by, the only habitation until the Pacific Railway 
station was built. Here, we find the place positively crowded with lumbermen and 
railway labourers. All day they swarm to and fro, gang after gang arriving by the 
incoming trains. All night they sing, shout and dance. 

The best way to see the Upper Ottawa scenery from this point is from the cars 
of the Pacific Railway, which for some distance here run along the summit of a steep 
hill sloping directly down to the river. The scenery is mucii the same as at Deep 
River. We pass the Rocher Capitaine and the outlet of the Deux Rivieres, and early 
in the afternoon are landed ai the Pacific Railway station at Mattawa. Nothing could 
be more wildly desolate than the aspect of this village. In the shadow of silent hills 
the Ottawa widens beside it, to receive the waters of the river which gives the place 
its name. This was the goal of Champlain's explorations of the Upper Ottawa; by 
yonder dark stream he turned his dauntless course to the westward lakes. The 
villaige of Mattawa is the most primitive, perhaps, to be seen in Canada. The 



THE UPPER OTTAWA 249 

people have no taxes, no politics, no schools ; all these blessings, no doubt, will be 
theirs in time. 

It is easy to get a large canoe and go up the river to one of the beautiful lakes 
that form part of it. These are of small width and great depth of water. The banks 
are of steep and dun-coloured granite. Here in these dense shades of impenetrable 
verdure — here, where even the lumberman never comes — all is desolate as when Cham- 
plain found it ; desolate as it was, before civilization commenced with the first savage 
who invented a stone-hatchet ; as it has continued since the mysterious era when life 
beoran, when the first fish shot through these dark waters, when the first wolf howled 
for food within these forest solitudes. 

Mattawa will always be a depot for the lumber trade, and probably, as the shanties 
move farther on, may to some extent take the place of Pembroke, and a more distant 
Ultima Thule, that of Mattawa. The streets are irregular, blocked with huge granite 
or o-neiss boulders, causes of stumblino- and offence to man and beast. But there 
are several merchants with good supply of w-ares. who certainly have no reason to 
complain of hard times. 

Mattawa is the nearest to civilization of the Hudson's Bay Company forts. We were 
shown their stores, where are treasured a goodly stock of valuable furs and skins, from 
that of the silver fox, most rare and valuable of all, to those of the mink, lynx, 
and muskrat. The supply of furs, we were informed by the Company's agent, is at 
present very great. This is because of the thriftlessness of the present race of the 
young Indians, who kill the animals required for breeding. He thought the fur-trade 
was not likely to last above a century as a traffic on any considerable scale. The 
Indians too, he thought, were not likely to last much longer. In former times the 
Hudson's Bay Company would not traffic with them for liquor; but now all sorts of un- 
principled traders bring the fire-water for which the Indian hunters are sure to keep 
up the demand — till death enforces prohibition. 

From its far-away sources in the chain of lakes and .swamps which feed also the 
Saguenay, the St. Maurice and the Gatineau, the Ottawa comes, bringing through the 
deep waters of Lake Temiscamingue the spoils of great forests of pine, which for years 
to come will keep up the supply of those vast rafts of spars, logs and timber, which 
have been meeting us all the way from Quebec. The Pacific Railway from Mattawa 
will continue its construction westward by the old Trapper's route, past Lake Nipissing 
and north of the inland seas of Huron and Superior. 



AUG 18 1B99 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




